Schloss Obermotzing

Schloss Obermotzing once stood in the village of the same name in Aholfing, a municipality in Lower Bavaria’s Straubing-Bogen district. The site traces its origins to the 14th century, when the Rain family held property there. In 1376 Leutwin der Rainer granted two farms to St Peter’s Chapel near Straubing. By 1450 Heimeram der Rainer had bought the entire village and its lordship rights from the Straubing citizen Hermann Zeller. From then on the Rain family exercised the Hofmarksrechte over Obermotzing. In 1599 the village was placed under the Oberamt Alburg. The only surviving image of the place is Michael Wening’s 1721 engraving. It shows a two-storey building with a prominent doorway, a sundial and two rows of dormer windows. A low wall with a gateway enclosed the courtyard. Outside the enclosure a church can be seen, likely the present-day St Georg’s filial church. After 1802 Obermotzing fell under the Rain Class I patrimonial court until that court was dissolved in 1848 and its jurisdiction transferred to the Straubing district court. Today the site is marked by a simple stone cross and a few remaining foundation walls. Visitors can still trace the outline of the old gateway and the low enclosing wall. The surrounding meadows and farmland give little hint of the vanished building, yet the sundial’s position can still be guessed. The nearby St Georg’s church, with its plain whitewashed nave, offers a quiet place to pause.