Schloss in Rohrbach

Schloss Rohrbach stands in the old village core of Rohrbach, a Bavarian village in the Pfaffenhofen district. It forms the former village centre together with the parish church of St John the Baptist, the old inn and the town hall. The building served as the seat of the closed Hofmark Rohrbach, a medieval manor estate with its own jurisdiction. It is a typical Hofmarkschloss, complete with farm buildings and a surrounding wall, and is listed as a monument. Beneath the castle, medieval and early modern traces have been recognised as archaeological remains. The castle’s origins lie with the Lords of Rohrbach, first recorded in the 11th century. Their fortified stronghold on the Turmberg was destroyed in 1445 during a Bavarian dynastic war. By the 16th century the family had abandoned the ruin and built the present three-storeyed palace in the village centre. In 1734 the Freiherr von Dürsch family remodelled it in the Baroque style, adding a steep gable and an alliance coat of arms. The gatehouse with its mansard roof was added soon after. After the First World War the Koch family restored the building and repainted it in its historic light yellow and red scheme. Visitors enter through the gatehouse into a courtyard framed by the main palace and its east wing. The west façade shows the stepped Baroque gable and the Dürsch–Baar coat of arms above the risalit. Inside, the former great hall and elaborate tiled stoves survive almost unchanged. The east wing still contains a small hop-drying kiln from the 18th century. The surrounding village square, with its church and old inn, completes the historic ensemble.