Falkenstein Castle

Falkenstein Castle, also known as Schlossfelsen Falkenstein, is today the remains of a rock castle on a rock opposite the church in the small town of Falkenstein/Vogtl. in the Vogtlandkreis in Saxony.

Falkenstein Castle was built around the year 1200 by the Vögte of Weida and Plauen. Together with the castles of Treuen and Auerbach to the northwest and north respectively, and Schöneck Castle to the south, it was part of a chain of castles intended to secure the cleared area of the Plauen lordship to the east. The sovereign castle of Falkenstein was given as a fief by the Vögte to the noble family of Falkenstein, who bore the same name. They are documented in 1267 with Johannes von Falkenstein as followers of Heinrich I von Plauen. In the course of the Vogtland War, when the Vögte of Weida, Gera, and Plauen lost most of their possessions to Emperor Charles IV and the Wettins, the Falkensteins had to grant King Charles IV of Bohemia the right of access to their castle. At the end of the 14th century, the castle then became the property of the Wettins; at this time, the Falkenstein family probably died out. During the first half of the 15th century, the Wettins enfeoffed the Lords of Trützschler with the castle; they were also able to develop the settlement of Falkenstein (Valkinstein), which had grown up under the protection of the castle in the 13th century, into a town. It was also the Trützschlers who had the castle at the foot of the fortress, which stood in place of the former manor house, built. The castle, which was already in ruins around 1528, was largely demolished in 1618 by Georg Abraham Trützschler.