Roßstein Castle

The castle ruin Roßstein is a former late medieval noble castle above the hamlet of Spieshof in the Upper Palatinate market of Hohenburg in the district of Amberg-Sulzbach in Bavaria.

The castle ruin is located in the eastern part of the Franconian Jura in the Hirschwald Nature Park, about 200 meters south of Spieshof or 5,650 meters east-northeast of the Catholic parish church of St. Jakobus in Hohenburg on a mountain spur projecting northwest into the valley of the Lauterach tributary Taubenbach.

Nearby are other former medieval castles: to the southwest lies the Hohenburg castle ruin, to the northeast a castle site on the Schlossberg near the market of Rieden, and presumably another castle site north of Vilshofen.

To this day, there is no precise knowledge about the time of origin and the builder of Roßstein Castle; it is possible that "Konrad Erlheimer" built the castle on his own property before 1331. He demonstrably named himself after Roßstein Castle for the first time in 1331.

The name of the castle comes from the Old High German "hros" as a general term for the horse, which, however, changed in Middle High German to "ros" for the warhorse of knights. The root word -stein is to be understood as "castle made of stone". Roßstein is therefore a rather younger castle name that shows the symbols of knightly virtues.

The purpose of Roßstein Castle could have been to monitor a crossroads of two ancient roads, namely the Iron Road, which connected the Vils valley with Amberg, and the so-called Old Road, which led from Hohenburg via Rieden to Schwandorf. A second task could also have been to secure the border between the Regensburg dominion of Hohenburg, the Palatinate, and Bavaria.

Around 1357, the castle came as a dowry to the knight "Rüdiger von Punzinger", who became a Palatine administrator in Hohenfels. His brother Georg was in dispute with Count Palatine Ruprecht and the city of Regensburg because he had harbored "harmful people" in his Roßstein Castle who attacked and robbed Palatine and Regensburg merchants. In 1411, the castle was set on fire by the Regensburgers due to this feud between the Punzingers and Regensburg. Roßstein Castle was apparently severely damaged in the process, as Andreas Punzinger subsequently had to fundamentally renovate it.

However, the Lords of Roßstein lost interest in the remote castle a few years later, as they held important offices as administrators at Heinburg, court master to Duke Johann in Amberg, and guardian of his son Christoph. In 1447, they also acquired the Hofmark Allersburg. In 1480, they still referred to themselves as "on the Taubenbach", presumably having built a more comfortable seat in the valley. Thereafter, around 1499, they named themselves after Allersburg.

After the death of Mathes Punzinger, Roßstein Castle fell to the Electoral Palatinate after 1490, which had the castle managed by a forester until 1550.

In the same year, the castle burned down due to carelessness, but Lienhard Spieß, appointed as administrator in 1563, did not renew it, but used the castle as a quarry for the construction of the present Spieshof.

The chronicler Christoph Vogel described Roßstein Castle in 1600 as "An Old Broken Castle Site outside the border [of the Burglengenfeld office] in the Rieden office".

Today, the site of the former castle is densely overgrown with forest; only the ruin of the residential tower and other wall remains of the main castle have been preserved, while only ramparts and ditches of the former buildings bear witness to the outer bailey.