Burg Lichteneck

Burg Lichteneck stands on the Schlossberg hilltop in the Oberpfalz region of Bavaria, 700 metres above sea level. It is the ruined remains of a medieval summit castle built in the early 13th century. The site overlooks the village of Lichteneck in Rimbach municipality, Cham district. The hill is marked as a protected monument under two separate listings. The circular bergfried still rises twenty metres, its walls two metres thick at the base.

The castle passed through many hands in the 14th and 15th centuries. The Sattelbogener family held it from 1341 until 1537. Hussite raids damaged the walls between 1420 and 1430. Later owners included Duke Albrecht of Bavaria around 1490 and the Baumgartner family in the 16th century. A fire in the 1550s left the structure in ruins, and by the late 16th century it had fallen into decay. Restoration work in 1982 stabilised what remains today.

Visitors walk among the long rectangular ruins divided into upper and lower baileys. Two outer baileys guard the approach. The round bergfried dominates the courtyard, its massive stonework still intact. Excavations in 1990 uncovered traces of the former chapel. The entire plateau is protected as an archaeological site, silent witness to centuries of conflict and legend.