Uprode Castle (Ruin)

Around 1320, the Knights of Sparneck had the hilltop castle Uprode built to secure their ancestral lands. The castle was first documented in 1373 when the Sparnecks sold it to the Burgraves of Nuremberg. Later, ownership passed to the related Lords of Lüchau. During this period, a possible destruction of the castle by the Hussites is suspected. By the end of the 15th century, the Kotzau and Reitzenstein families were co-owners, with a portion of the Reitzenstein property briefly sold to Georg Blassenberger. In 1494, the castle returned to the possession of the Sparnecks. Uprode met its abrupt end on July 11, 1523, at the hands of the Swabian League. This league destroyed numerous castles in Central Germany whose owners had held captive Nuremberg merchants as accomplices of the robber knight Thomas von Absberg.