The Lobenstein castle ruin is a former, presumably high medieval aristocratic castle in the municipality of Zell northeast of Regensburg in the Upper Palatinate district of Cham in Bavaria .

The ruin of the hilltop castle is freely accessible at all times and is used as a lookout point .

History

Lobenstein Castle, whose origin in literature was often only put in the 14th century, was possibly founded as early as the early 12th century, because in a tradition of the Reichenbach monastery from the middle of the 12th century, the two presumed brothers "Othmar" and "Rizman de Lobeneke" mentioned. They were ministerials of the Diepolding Counts, whose eponymous seat Lobeneck probably refers to the later Lobenstein Castle. In the masonry on the north and north-east side of the residential tower, the remains of a previous building can still be found today, over which the current residential tower was built. At that time, this castle probably served to secure the margravial territory to the west.

At a not exactly known time, the Lords of Peilstein came into possession of the presumably destroyed Lobenstein Castle. In 1339 "Eiban von Peilstein" sold his castle stable near Zell to "Eberhard Hofer von Hof". On May 23, 1340, Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian gave him permission to "rebuild the purkstal near cell, which he chauffeured to Iban von Peilstein, bowen sull and mug as it is useful", ie to rebuild the ruinous predecessor castle, however, Eberhard had to grant the emperor the right of opening in return for an assurance of imperial protection. The Hofer were ministerials of the Wittelsbach family who had their ancestral seat at Hof am Regen Castlehad, but then made Lobenstein Castle their headquarters, and from 1342 called themselves Eberhard, Hofer von Lobenstein. They had their family grave in the former Walderbach monastery and in the Catholic parish church of the Assumption of Mary in Zell.

From 1380 Lobenstein is referred to as the seat of a Hofmark , where the Hofers appointed their own judges. "Seifried Krumbeck" is the first to be attested. In 1369 "Kalhoch Hofer" called himself Pfleger zu Lobenstein, in 1373 then also "Eberhard Hofer".

Another destruction of the castle took place during the Hussite Wars , probably during the train against Nittenau in 1428. It is said to have been no longer inhabited by then, and to have been given up in favor of the new residence in Zell. After that, Lobenstein Castle was rebuilt, which is also shown by the secondary masonry inside the residential tower.

The Hofer became robber knights in the times after the Hussite Wars , "Degenhard Hofer" killed some ducal subjects. Then Lobenstein Castle was in 1443 by Duke Albrecht III. conquered by Bayern Munich for being robber barons. After that, however, the Hofer received the castle back as a fief , with the right of opening for the duke. In 1468 the castle was jointly owned by the brothers Dietrich and Hans Hofer. However, Hans again committed himself to robbery, which is why he received his share of the castle in the same year through the Wittelsbach Count Palatine Otto II.has been removed. Dietrich also handed his part of the castle over to the Count Palatine as a man-made feud and promised eternal opening. Both brothers granted the Count Palatine the right to open again after Hans got his share of Lobenstein Castle back into his possession.

Dietrich Hofer nevertheless joined the Löwlerbund in 1489 , which rebelled against Duke Albrecht IV , placed the castle under the protection of the Bohemian Duke Wladislaw II , and announced a feud to Duke Albrecht . Lobenstein Castle was then conquered by ducal troops, probably in the same year; Dietrich's son Wolf Hofer only got it back in 1507, after he had obediently vowed to be a compatriot . In 1516 the brothers Jörg and Wolf Hofer paid homage to Count Palatine Ludwig V and Philipp , took the castle as a fiefdom for ever and granted a permanent opening.

After border disputes between Bavaria and the Palatinate in 1530, “Schloss Lobenstein” was added to the “ young Palatinate ” on April 11, 1538 , which was founded after the Landshut War of Succession . In 1526 the owners of Lobenstein were still referred to as Bavarian subjects. The Hofmark was owned by Jörg Hofer until 1550, from whom it passed to the brothers Wolf Dietrich and David Eitel. In 1557 David becomes the sole owner, but since he was in debt, he tried in vain to sell the property to the barons of the Rhine in 1558 .

In 1556 the castle is described as "... not inhabited for 20 years ...", when the castle was given up as a residence is not known exactly, possibly after the conquest in the Lion War. In 1689, too, Lobenstein is referred to as "... a bare being and mere stain heap ...", although a view from the second half of the 16th century shows the castle buildings still under roof. At that time, however, the people of Hof in Lobenstein and Zell were safely seated in the castle in Zell, which was mentioned in 1556 as "... ain Hofpau zu Zell ...".

The last Hofer on Lobenstein and Zell was Hans Georg Hofer, who can be traced back to 1593. The Protestant had to emigrate to Regensburg in 1629 after the recatholicization began during the Thirty Years' War . He named himself after Lobenstein and Zell in 1637, although all his attempts to regain possession of the rulership had failed.

The final destruction of Lobenstein Castle took place shortly afterwards in 1633 by Swedish troops. The heirs of Hans Georg Hofer had to sell the ruins to the Bohemian baron Georg Thomas von Herstenzky zu Herstein and Welhartitz in 1649 because they could not rebuild the complex. The baron, on the other hand, probably intended to rebuild the castle; in 1652 he paid homage to the sovereign. However, there was no reconstruction, Georg Thomas sold the estate in 1665 to Baron Hans Peter von Salis. After his death in 1670, the fief fell back to the sovereign. From 1709 the son-in-law of the widow of Baron Hans Peter, Conrad Thomas Rummel von Lonnerstadt, is the owner of the two estates in Zell and Lobenstein. In 1737 the castle is mentioned again as "... the old collapsed Lobenstein Castle ...". The goods remained in the Rummel family's possession until 1806, when the property was inherited by the von Frank family.

Today only the residential tower, which is up to three storeys high, remains of the former castle, it is freely accessible and today serves as a lookout tower . Of the remaining buildings only walls and ditches, some of which are heavily overgrown with trees and bushes, have survived. The ruins can be easily reached from Zell on foot via a signposted path.

By the Bavarian Conservation Office as a monument detected ruin transmits the monument number D-3-72-167-6 .

Description of the plant

The ruin of the hilltop castle lies on and around the highest point of the Zeller Schlossberg at 564.6 m above sea level. NHN on a triangular dome , which is covered in places with rounded granite rocks. The Schlossberg falls very steeply to the valley of the Perlenbach creek, especially to the south, the west and east sides of the mountain also drop steeply, only the north side of the mountain turns into a slightly more gently sloping slope, which then rises again to a neighboring hilltop .

The area of ​​the one-piece, rather small summit castle has roughly the shape of a trapezoid , and had a maximum length of about 65 meters and a width of 30 meters.

The castle complex was surrounded by an enclosure wall, of which a rubble wall up to 1.8 meters high can still be seen in the eastern and northeastern areas. In the rest of the area, especially in the south of the complex, the wall can only be seen as the edge of the terrace. On the naturally poorly protected north and north-west side of the former castle, the surrounding wall is preceded by a moat . Entrances to the facility could have been in the area of ​​today's driveway in the middle of the east side, and possibly on the west side.

The castle courtyard was located in the southern and partly in the eastern area of ​​the complex; it was in the lowest part of the castle complex. On the north-west side of the castle there was an elevated residential building with the dimensions of around 28 x 16 meters, of which only the foundations and a collapsed cellar vault can be seen today. A view from the 16th century shows the building as a two-story building with a hipped roof . The north side of this building stood only a few meters behind the surrounding wall, so that a very narrow, presumed kennel area was created here.

At the highest point of the complex, in the northeast area, there was a residential tower , it was connected to the northeast side of the residential building. The tower stands on several of the granite boulders that were integrated into the masonry of the tower. The rocks also appear in the basement. On the north and west side of the tower base, small cave spaces were created between the rocks, which were closed with walls.

The residential tower had the shape of a trapezoid, three floors and a basement. Except for the second floor, they are well preserved today. The tower measures 15.5 by 9.5 to 13 meters with a height of 18 meters, and is made of cut-out layered quarry stone masonry with corner blocks. The masonry on the ground floor is up to 2.4 meters thick, the northeast and southeast corners of the tower are bevelled. On the north and north-east side, in the lower area, the masonry of an older predecessor building can be seen that is clearly separated from the rest of the masonry. It could have come from the 12th century castle.

Under the eastern half of the tower there is a brick-vaulted cellar with a small slit window facing east, the remaining floors were originally divided into three equal rooms by beamed ceilings. The now visible subdivisions, vaults, walls and pillars inside the tower were probably built in during the 15th century. At that time the quarry stone masonry inside was plastered, as remains of the plaster that has been preserved shows.

The entrance to the tower is on the ground floor; on the west side of this floor there is a slot window that tapers outwards. There are also vaulted window niches on the north and east sides, the east still shows the reveal of the rectangular window and side benches. These and the remaining reveals of the residential tower were probably added during renovations in the 1970s. The south-east corner inside the tower was subsequently separated by walls on the ground and first floor, so that a very narrow and barrel-vaulted room was created in the north-east corner , which today extends over two floors.

The first floor certainly served as the main living floor, here are five arched window niches, some with preserved benches. This floor is covered by two barrel vaults parallel from north to south, of which only the beginnings of the vaults and the pillar in between on the south side are preserved today. On this floor, too, the south-east corner has been separated by masonry, but this room is also spanned with a barrel vault facing north to south.

Not much has been preserved from the second floor of the residential tower, it now serves as a viewing platform . Only on the west side of this floor is a higher wall remnant preserved, in which there is an arched window. At the northeast corner there is another opening, at which there are two corbels on the outside of the tower , possibly a toilet bay .

At the southeast corner of the tower there is a polygonal extension on the outside , which has a round floor plan on the inside; this could be the rest of a round tower flanking the entrance.

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Gratis

Gratis

- Aussichtspunkt

- Schöner Ausblick

Ruinen der Burg