🏛️ Hohenberneck castle ruins

Bad Berneck is also known as Burgenland for a reason. There are a total of six fortifications in and around Bad Berneck, which give visitors a touch of the Middle Ages. Only a short detour from here are three of the Bad Berneck castles.

The ruins Hohenberneck is a late Gothic castle built in the late Gothic style of the late Middle Ages. The ruins of the mountain castle is located on the castle hill of Bad Berneck in the Upper Franconian district of Bayreuth in Bavaria. It is freely accessible.
The ruin is located near the castle ruin Altes Schloss and the tower castle Alt-Berneck at the exit of the spa park in the upper town of Bad Berneck.
In 1478 Veit von Wallenrode with the castle stable of the former Walpotenburg, which was built at this point before 1168 by Ulrich II Walpot, under the proviso to build there a castle, entrusted. Veit was at this time a bailiff in the Old Castle, which lies directly below the Hohenberneck. The old castle was pledged since 1406 to the Wallenrode, the repurchase took place directly before the loan in 1477, so that Veit von Wallenrode had the necessary funds for castle construction.
Veit von Wallenrode did not experience the completion of the castle Neuwallenrode, as it was called at that time, since he died in 1499. His daughters sold the unfinished castle to the bailiff of Stein, Albrecht von Wirsberg. He finished the castle and sold it in 1501 to Margrave Friedrich II of Brandenburg-Kulmbach. 1502 is the first bailiff on the Hohenberneck, as the castle was called, occupied. The official residence was moved from the Old Castle to the new castle. However, the role of the castle as a seat lasted only briefly, because in 1557 the office was incorporated into the caste office, bureaucrats at the castle appeared in the episode no longer.
With the castle no longer required ex officio from 1557 to 1736 were lent by Wallenrode. With Karl Friedrich von Wallenrode, the last fief, the Franconian line died from Wallenrode.
In 1737 the margrave bought back the castle. In a drawing dated around 1740, the castle is already visible without a roof. Probably the relocation of the old road via imperii from the Schlossberg to the newly built track through the Knodental valley played a role. In the former city museum of Bad Berneck, a land title card to be dated in 1751 shows both the old path over the Schlossberg and the new route parallel.

Very nicely prepared castle with a beautiful view of Bad Berneck.