Burgstall Troßberg

The Burgstall Troßberg stands on a rocky spur above the Pilsach valley in the Franconian Alb. The spur drops steeply on three sides, leaving only the north-western approach to be guarded by a deep neck ditch. The site lies close to the village of Tartsberg, west of the Langenmühle, in the municipality of Pilsach. The castle was once the seat of the vogts who ruled the Litzlohe district for the monastery of St Emmeram in Regensburg. The vogts came from the counts of Kastl, then the Wolfsteiners, before the dukes of Bavaria took over in the late 13th century and installed their own ministerials. Konrad Senfft and Rüdiger Fürnried are recorded here in 1293 and 1294, and Heinrich the Zenger held the castle in 1377. Visitors follow the rock and cross hiking trail to the wooded plateau where the only visible remains are the neck ditch, an outer rampart and scattered building traces. The triangular rock platform is almost sheer on the ditch side, with smaller pits and mounds marking former cellars and a possible cistern. At the southern tip a few foundation stones of a tower-like building still stand, including a large ashlar block.