Cultural heritage D-2-7245-0002 in Schöllnach

The former castle at Schöllnach stood in the market town in Lower Bavaria, about 110 metres south-east of St Johannes Baptist parish church. It occupied a roughly square island surrounded by a wide moat fed by the Kleine Ohe stream. A low bridge on the western side gave the only approach to the central mound. The site is now covered by modern houses, but the buried remains are protected as a scheduled monument. Old maps show two small round towers on the northern edge and one at the rear, all set on a raised platform 25 metres across. A separate outer bailey once held farm buildings for the estate. Schöllnach first appears in records in 865 when it belonged to Niederaltaich Abbey. The dukes of Bavaria and Bamberg bishops later held it, and in 1306 it became a knight’s fief. After several noble families exchanged the property, troops under General Johann von Werth plundered it during the Thirty Years War. Later owners included the Scharfseder and Vieregg families before the crown took it back in 1834 and the castle was levelled.