Scharfenberg Castle Ruins

Burgstall ScharfenbergThe Burgstall Scharfenberg is the remains of a ruined high medieval spur castle that once stood on a rocky spur on a foothill of the Scharfenberg in the municipality of Ursensollen in the Upper Palatinate district of Amberg-Sulzbach in Bavaria. It was the ancestral castle of the Scharfenberg family, who burned down the Kastl monastery in 1217.Very little is known about the early history of the castle and that of the nobles of Scharfenberg. It is also unclear whether this noble family of Scharfenberg is identical to that of the nobles of Ursensollen. A Heinrich de Ursensolingen appears in a document from the Ensdorf monastery in 1144. The castle complex was probably built around 1200 as the ancestral seat of the Upper Palatinate noble family of Scharfenberg.
A Sulzbach chronicle reports that the Scharfenberg family was denied the burial rights to which they were entitled by the Kastler monastery abbot Gebhard von Rieden, who then set fire to the monastery in 1217. The Scharfenberg family castle was then said to have been destroyed by the monastery's protectors, the Margraves of Hohenburg. It is not known whether this destruction of the castle was permanent; from the 14th century onwards, the Scharfenberg family was given the additional name "von Ursensollen".
By the middle of the 16th century at the latest, however, the castle complex was in ruins; a Kastler chronicler speaks of the "old vestigia".
Remains of the keep and the moat of the former castle complex still remain. The square keep had sides seven metres long and walls two metres thick.Source: Excerpts from wikipedia.de

Remains of the high medieval spur castle
de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burgstall_Scharfenberg

The periwinkle (Vinca minor) blooms there in spring. A wonderful forest to enjoy nature and the light beech forest.