Baudenkmal

The Burg Stein stands on a wooded spur above a loop of the Ölschnitz river near Gefrees in Upper Franconia. The Walpoten built it around the year 1000 as one of their earliest strongholds. From the medieval walls only fragments remain, yet the three-storey Kemenate still rises with its 17th-century half-hipped roof. The castle’s history is marked by transfers between bishops, margraves and noble families. In 1342 Bishop Leopold of Bamberg authorised its rebuilding after ruin, creating the Palas that still defines the site. By the late 15th century the Sparneck family had to pawn it to the Bavarian dukes, and after the Thirty Years War the complex was sold off piece by piece. Visitors walk past remnants of the Zwinger and Vorburg to reach the surviving Kemenate. Inside, the upper floors contain the Burgkapelle St Michael, consecrated in 1686 by the Basel-born Amtmann Johann Jakob Baßler. Outside, the chapel’s altar from Goldkronach and an organ from Taufkirchen stand within the old Palas. Beyond the ruins, the spur drops steeply to the river valley, where the Ölschnitz winds beneath beech and spruce woods.