Schellenberg Castle (Ruin)

The Schellenberg castle ruin is a former late medieval noble castle in the Upper Palatinate Forest. It is located near the village of Georgenberg, close to the Silberhütte cross-country skiing center in the Upper Palatinate district of Neustadt an der Waldnaab in Bavaria.

The ruin of the summit castle, at 826 meters, is the highest elevation in the district, and therefore serves today as a viewpoint. It is freely accessible, and the view extends over the Flossenbürg ruin to Parkstein. In addition to the remains of the castle, the rock formation on which the remains are located is particularly interesting.

On the castle grounds are several granite rock towers that were used for the construction of the castle. At the eastern foot of the rock towers, which extend approximately in a northwest-southeast direction, there was also a lower-lying outer bailey. The ruin is best reached from the Planer Höhe parking lot, a little east of Waldkirch, on a hiking trail. Near the Schellenberg castle ruin are the Flossenbürg ruin and the Haselstein castle site in a northwesterly direction, and the Leuchtenberg castle ruin in a southwesterly direction.

The castle was founded on August 23, 1347, by the Lords of Waldau zu Waldthurn. Later, this castle, which was then called Lug ins Land (View into the Country), was pledged to a Franconian knight named Phillip von Guttenberg. In the course of the Guttenberg Feud between him and his brother Moritz on one side and the Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach on the other, the castle was conquered and razed on July 11/12, 1498, by the margravial captain Konrad von Wirsberg. Although the Waldthurners subsequently redeemed the castle ruin, they did not rebuild it. In 1540, Georg von Waldau und Waldthurn sold the Lordship of Waldthurn and with it the ruin to Wilibald and Albrecht Eitel von Wirsberg, descendants of the castle's destroyer. Until the extinction of the Waldthurn line in 1647, the Wirsbergers remained owners of the castle, which was then sold in 1648 by Emperor Ferdinand III, along with the Lordship of Waldthurn, to Wenzel von Lobkowitz. His family owned it until 1807. Until then, there was still a hunting lodge on the Schellenberg; in 1865, the last inhabited building was demolished. However, remains of the castle have survived to this day.