Hohenlandsberg Castle

The castle ruin Hohenlandsberg is the ruin of a hilltop castle in the southern Steigerwald on the 498-meter-high Hohenlandsberg near the municipality of Weigenheim in the district of Neustadt an der Aisch-Bad Windsheim in Bavaria.

The castle, presumably founded in the 12th century, was the ancestral seat of the Franconian-Bohemian noble family of the Barons of Hohenlandsberg. In the 13th century, it was held as an imperial fief by the Prince-Bishopric of Würzburg. After several pledges, in 1435, the Prince-Bishopric sold "the castle and office of Lanndßberge" with all appurtenances as a free allodial possession to Erkinger, Lord of Schwarzenberg and Seinsheim, in gratitude for his military support in the bishop's feuds with the cities of Würzburg and Ochsenfurt. Erkinger's descendants owned the castle and the office of Hohenlandsberg as free allodial and undisputed until 1500, thereafter as a fief of the Zollern margraves.

Between 1512 and 1524, Johann von Schwarzenberg had the old castle demolished and rebuilt "anew into the mountain" according to the latest castle construction knowledge.

During the Peasants' War, the cannons for the defense of Schwarzenberg were withdrawn from Landsburg, and the defenseless castle was captured by the peasants on March 4, 1525, and, contrary to their custom, not destroyed.