Schloss Burgfried

Schloss Burgfried stands in the village of Burg, part of Winhöring in the Altötting district of Bavaria. The site was once the seat of a small medieval castle, first mentioned when it became a Bamberg bishopric fief in the late 14th century. The original building was replaced in the early 18th century by a modest Baroque residence built by Max Joseph Freiherr von Richel. Beneath the present grounds lie the buried remains of earlier medieval and early modern structures, including a late medieval castle and its chapel dedicated to Saint Bartholomew. The castle’s history is tied to the Trenbeck family, who held it for nearly two hundred years after Elisabeth Perger married Hans I. Trenbeck in 1391. The family expanded their holdings to include nearby Waldberg and Arbing, but by the early 17th century the line ended with Hans Christoph von Trenbeck. A legal dispute over feudal rights in 1564–65 confirmed Bamberg’s authority, and in 1643 the fief was converted to freehold status before being merged into the Hofmark of Winhöring the following year. Today only the small Baroque palace and its attached chapel survive. The chapel, once inside the old castle, now stands separately but was originally connected to the residence. The site is recognised as a cultural monument, with underground traces of the medieval predecessor still present. Visitors find a quiet country setting beside the village church, where the modest scale of the surviving buildings reflects the modest ambitions of a once-powerful local dynasty.