Cultural heritage D-2-7640-0009 in Bodenkirchen

Schloss Haunzenbergersöll was a medieval castle in Haunzenbergersöll, a village in Bodenkirchen, Lower Bavaria. The site stands on level ground west of St Johannes Baptist church and less than 100 metres south-east of the Eschlbach stream. Archaeologists classify it as a medieval burgstall, meaning a vanished fortification whose earthworks and buried foundations remain. The castle’s history begins in the 12th century with Wernhardus and Rupertus de Huzenberge, servants of the Bishop of Passau. By the 14th century a Hofmark, or manorial estate, had grown up around a service courtyard belonging to St Veit monastery. In 1588 the estate was split into two Hofmarken held by different branches of the Hautzenberger family. After passing to the Freiherrn von Neuhaus in 1628, the castle fell into disuse and was pulled down in 1810. Today the only visible remains are the circular pond that once surrounded the building and the wooden bridge that crossed it. A simple wooden fence once separated the castle grounds from the neighbouring church. The pond still holds water, and the gentle slope where the timber house once stood is now meadow. Visitors can walk from the churchyard to the water’s edge and imagine the vanished halls and balconies recorded in Michael Wening’s 1726 engraving.