Lisberg Castle

Lisberg is a community in the Upper Franconian district of Bamberg and a member of the administrative community (Verwaltungsgemeinschaft) of Lisberg, lying in the Steigerwald (forest).

The community also has 2 traditional rural land units, known in German as Gemarkungen, named Lisberg and Trabelsdorf, the same names as 2 of the constituent communities (it is traditional for a Gemarkung to be named after a town or village lying nearby).

Lisberg is noticeable even from far away for the Burg Lisberg. This castle had its first documentary mention in 820 in a donation document, and it is among Germany’s oldest undestroyed castles. From 1600 to 1707, the Protestant line of the Barons of Münster held Lisberg as a fief, and then until 1790 the Catholic line did so. The castle is now privately owned. Concerts are sometimes held in the castle’s courtyard.

The palatial residence (Schloss) in the outlying centre of Trabelsdorf was acquired in 1664 by the Marshals of Ostheim and in 1700 it was newly built. It now houses the administrative community (Verwaltungsgemeinschaft) of Lisberg (whose member communities are Lisberg and Priesendorf) and a medical practice.

With the Act of the Confederation of the Rhine in 1806, the Barons of Münster-Lisberg saw their overlordship pass to Bavaria. The community of Lisberg has existed since 1978, consisting of the two formerly autonomous communities of Lisberg and Trabelsdorf.