Thierstein Castle (Ruin)

Thierstein Castle is today a castle ruin, located on a mountain spur above the village of Thierstein in the district of Wunsiedel in Bavaria.

In 1310, Albrecht VI. Nothaft, who came from Wildstein Castle, was appointed Imperial Forester in the Egerland by King Henry VII. Albrecht XI. succeeded his father in this office and built Thierstein Castle, first mentioned in 1340, as an administrative seat in the midst of the imperial forests entrusted to him. In 1340, in competition with the Notthaffts, the city of Eger was also entrusted with the office of forester in the Egerland by King John of Bohemia. This was followed by lengthy feuds between the Thierstein castle lords and the city of Eger, to finance which the Notthafft were forced to sell their property around Thierstein piece by piece. At the end of the 14th century, they finally sold Thierstein Castle with the neighboring market town of Thiersheim. The buyer was Margrave Wilhelm I of Meissen. From his heirs, the castle and its dominion passed in 1415 to the Burgraves of Nuremberg from the House of Hohenzollern. They garrisoned the castle with officials. In 1462, during the Bavarian War, in which King George of Podiebrad of Bohemia also fought against Margrave Albrecht Achilles, the official Friedrich von Dobeneck himself set fire to the village of Thierstein at the foot of the castle to prevent the enemies from entrenching themselves. In 1497, the castle's keep became part of a system of watchtowers for national defense, and Thierstein was designated as a rallying point for the citizen militias of the Sechsämterland in the event of an enemy invasion. In 1553, during the Federal War, Thierstein was occupied by Bohemian troops. After Margrave Georg Friedrich took office, he decided, probably due to the poor structural condition of the old castle, to leave the Thierstein office vacant for the time being. In 1562, Beringer von Kotzau was finally able to move in as an official in Thierstein. After his death in 1575, Thierstein was co-administered from Wunsiedel; the old castle remained uninhabited. In 1603, Margrave Georg Friedrich of Brandenburg ordered the abandonment of the castle and the construction of a new official residence outside the town of Thierstein. Nevertheless, the most necessary repairs to Thierstein Castle continued to be carried out to preserve it as a refuge and fortified grain depot for the population during the Thirty Years' War. It was once again brought into a makeshift defensive state in 1703 during the War of the Spanish Succession. The end of Thierstein Castle came in 1725 when it fell victim to a fire disaster that afflicted the entire market town of Thierstein.

The widely visible castle ruin is a popular tourist destination; from the preserved keep, one enjoys a panoramic view over the entire interior of the Fichtel Mountains as far as the Egerland.