Altes Schloss Schwarzenfeld

The Alte Schloss Schwarzenfeld stands in the market town of Schwarzenfeld in the Upper Palatinate region of Bavaria. It is a protected historic building on Kirchstraße, surrounded by modern streets and houses. The complex includes several sections separated by colour and pilaster strips, with one wing having a two-storey design and part of it under a hipped roof. The castle’s origins go back to a 14th-century fortress built by Conrad Pullenhofer in 1372. The Plankenfels family later enlarged it and added four towers in the 15th century, though these were probably lost during the Thirty Years’ War. After a fire in 1707 destroyed much of the site, a new smaller residence called the Plankenfelser Schlössl was constructed on the old foundations. In 1814 the last noble owner, Freiin Elise von Bernclau, sold the property to Lorenz Ruidisch, a master carpenter. Visitors today see a modest two-storey building with a street-side oriel window and a hipped roof on one section. The walls are divided by plain pilasters and painted in contrasting shades, giving the complex a simple yet distinctive look. The site also contains traces of earlier medieval and early modern structures beneath the ground. Despite its small size, the building remains a quiet reminder of Schwarzenfeld’s layered past.