Schloss Wolnzach

Schloss Wolnzach was once a medieval water castle in the market town of Wolnzach in Upper Bavaria. It stood on the site now occupied by the town’s fairground. The castle served as the seat of the local lordship and later as a Hofmark, a Bavarian noble estate with limited jurisdiction. Archaeologists classify its remains as a protected monument, recognising layers from the Middle Ages and early modern period. The castle’s story begins with the Hoholde family, who made Wolnzach their power centre in the late 11th century. After passing to the Wittelsbach dukes and the Preysing family, it gained Reichsfreiheit in 1465. The Preysing line ended in 1497, and the estate became a Hofmark under the Elsenheimers in 1584. During the Thirty Years’ War the Swedes destroyed the old castle in 1632. The Elsenheimers rebuilt it as a four-storey brick water castle with octagonal turrets, financed partly by Fugger loans. Elector Charles Albert later used it as a hunting lodge for boar hunts before it was sold and demolished in 1810. Today no visible traces of the castle remain, but the names Schlosshof, Schloßstraße and Elsenheimerstraße recall its past. The former Jägerhaus, rebuilt in 1969, now houses a bank on the fairground site. The town’s chronicles and local studies keep the memory of Wolnzach’s vanished seat of power alive.