Freudensee Castle

Freudensee Castle is a former stately home on the lake of the same name. It belongs to the urban area of Hauzenberg in the Bavarian Forest.

The early history of the castle is unknown; it was probably owned by episcopal ministerials or other noble families and possibly abandoned for a longer period before it came into the direct possession of the Prince-Bishopric of Passau in the 15th century and was restored. The Passau bishop Georg I von Hohenlohe (1390–1423) is known as the owner of the castle and used it as a hunting lodge. From the 16th century, Freudensee Castle was abandoned, and the district court was dissolved. The ponds as well as the other fishing waters of the area remained in princely-episcopal possession and were subject to the Oberhaus regional court, and from 1786 to the Thyrnau administrative district. The Prince-Bishopric of Passau became part of Bavaria in 1805 as a result of secularization. In the 19th century, the castle ruins came into the possession of the Mörtl family, who around 1870 converted the former chapel into a residential house and subsequently built a stable and barn. The ivy-clad buildings are still inhabited today.