Heilsberg Castle (Ruin)

The castle ruin Heilsberg is a castle ruin about 200 meters southeast of Pangerlhof near the district Dietersweg of the municipality Wiesent in the Upper Palatinate district of Regensburg in Bavaria.

The castle was built in the middle of the 12th century by the Truchsesses of Heilsberg and Eggmühl and was first mentioned in a document in 1213. In 1333, Konrad von Nothaft bought the castle as a fief of the Prince-Bishopric of Regensburg.

Until the 16th century, when the property became associated with Wiesent, the castle frequently changed owners. Among others, Duke Ludwig the Bearded of Ingolstadt, Duke Albrecht, and Duke Ludwig of Landshut are mentioned.

In the 16th century, the castle was abandoned and left to decay. In 1644, Abbot Stephan von Frauenzell reported on Heilsberg as "an ancient, collapsed castle built of ashlar blocks".

The castle complex featured a distinct rampart and ditch system with a curtain wall and a deep neck ditch in the northwest, as well as a square keep on a base area of 7.5 by 7.5 meters made of cast masonry, clad with 2.5 meter thick granite bossed ashlar blocks.

Of the former castle complex, remains of the keep, the enclosing walls, and parts of the curtain wall are still preserved. Wall remains of a structure in the southeast suggest a gatehouse. Since 2005, work to preserve the ruin has been carried out by the "Förderverein zur Erhaltung der Burgruine Heilsberg e.V." (Support Association for the Preservation of the Heilsberg Castle Ruin).