Wernstein Castle (Upper Franconia)

Burg Wernstein stands on the western edge of the village of Wernstein in the Mainleus district of Upper Franconia. It is one of the finest castle complexes in the region and has belonged to the von Künsberg family for more than six centuries. The site replaced an earlier structure destroyed before the 14th century. The castle first appears in records in 1376, when Heinrich von Künsberg endowed a chapel in nearby Veitlahm to hold weekly masses at Wernstein. It remained in the family’s hands through the Thirty Years’ War, when Swedish troops occupied it in 1632 and left it badly damaged. By 1644 the von Künsbergs had repaired the walls, halls, brewery and kitchen. The lower castle, built in 1588, has a long two-storey wing with two rounded towers whose medallion reliefs echo those on Kulmbach’s Plassenburg. A deep medieval well still stands beside the inner gate. The upper castle preserves a three-storey Renaissance wing and an 18th-century mansard-roofed section. The family still lives here, so the interior is private, but the outer courtyards and surrounding ring walls remain visible. A short walk away lies the Künsberg woodland cemetery, where the pianist Wilhelm Kempff is buried.