Hundshaupten Castle

Hundshaupten Castle is a four-winged castle complex in Hundshaupten, a district of Egloffstein in the Forchheim district.

The castle was first mentioned in 1369 as being owned by the Lords of Wiesenthau. Like almost all castles in Franconian Switzerland, it was built on a mountain spur of the Jura plateau projecting into the valley. After its destruction in 1388 during the War of the Cities by the Nuremberg forces, in 1412 by Burgrave Friedrich VI of Nuremberg, and in 1525 during the Peasants' War, the castle was rebuilt in 1561.

After the Wiesenthau line in Hundshaupten died out in 1613, the fief reverted to Michelsberg Monastery in Bamberg. After the Thirty Years' War, in 1661, the monastery sold the castle to Hieronymus Christoph Freiherr von Pölnitz, city commander of Forchheim, who resided in Aschbach, now a district of Schlüsselfeld. In the following years, renovations took place, but they did not alter the castle's character.

Through a donation from Gudila Freifrau von Pölnitz, part of the property, including Hundshaupten Wildlife Park, passed to the Forchheim district in 1991.

Hieronymus Christoph Heinrich Freiherr von Pölnitz, great-nephew and adopted son of Prof. Dr. Götz Freiherr von Pölnitz and Gudila Freifrau von Pölnitz, continues to manage the estate.