Altes Schloss

The Altes Schloss stands at the tip of a granite tongue that juts east–west into the Schwarzach valley near Neunburg vorm Wald in the Upper Palatinate. The tongue rises about twenty metres above the rivers on a triangular plateau bounded by the Rötzerbach to the south and the Schwarzach to the north. A single neck ditch on the east side once made the site easy to defend, while a wider pond-graben and later a second ditch guarded the southern and eastern approaches. The fortress began as a medieval castle and grew into a ducal residence when the Wittelsbachs made Neunburg a Pfalz residence in 1354. The Dürnitz, a great hall built in the early 15th century, once hosted feasts and councils; later it housed courts and store-rooms. In 1641 imperial and Bavarian troops stormed the town, capturing the Swedish garrison under Erik Slang. Visitors enter through a half-round gate cut into the rock, its drawbar still visible. At the crest stands the Dürnitzstock, its massive walls enclosing the former hall. The surrounding ring-wall with its zwinger and mural towers follows the edge of the plateau, offering long views across the valley. Below, the Schwarzach winds past the Kalvarienberg where the Rötzerbach now meets it.