Burgstall Löweneck

Löweneck is a medieval castle site above the Naab valley in the Oberpfalz region of Bavaria. It stands on a rocky spur of the Kühberg, about 430 metres above sea level, roughly ten kilometres west-north-west of Regensburg. The spur drops steeply on three sides into valleys or the river, leaving only the south-eastern slope as the main approach. A wide ditch was dug there to protect the approach. The castle was founded after 1250, probably by the Wittelsbach dukes, and first appears in records in 1277 when Hugo von Löweneck witnessed a sale to Regensburg’s Holy Cross monastery. The family served the Bavarian dukes as ministeriales and controlled routes from Penk through the Penker Tal to Nittendorf and Regensburg. In 1306 Duke Stephan allowed Eckard von Löweneck to sell the castle to Pielenhofen convent, and in 1316 King Ludwig the Bavarian ordered its demolition after it had been partly destroyed by the nuns. Today the wooded spur shows only a short stretch of wall, a ditch and buried foundations. A sign marks the site, reached by a footpath that links Penk to other castle ruins along the Naab. The path forms part of the Regensburger Burgensteig, a long-distance trail that passes Löweneck, Lichtenroth, Wolfsegg and Kallmünz. The remains lie within a roughly rectangular area divided into a lower outer ward and a smaller inner ward higher up, both now covered by earth and trees.