Cultural heritage D-3-6238-0043 in Parkstein

The Hammerschloss Hammerles stands in Hammerles, a village part of Parkstein in the Upper Palatinate. It sits beside the Schweinnaab, a river that once marked the border between two historic jurisdictions. The site includes traces of a late medieval and early modern iron hammer mill powered by the river’s water. The place is worth visiting for its long and colourful history. First recorded between 1200 and 1270, it was a free estate where owners enjoyed unusual freedoms. Documents show how the estate passed through many families, from the Räumlein brothers in 1418 to the Mendel von Steinfels line and later noble owners such as the von Grafenreuths and von Waldenfels. The estate’s 1619 inventory lists a solid stone house, stables, a sheep hut, a day-labourer’s cottage, a curtain wall and a water-filled moat. Visitors today find only faint remains of the old complex. The ‘Schmiedpoint’ marks where the hammer mill once stood, and building work still uncovers iron slag. The surrounding meadows and the quiet banks of the Schweinnaab give a sense of the site’s past importance without grand ruins to see.