Schloss Siegritz

Schloss Siegritz was a medieval water castle in the village of Siegritz, near Erbendorf in northern Bavaria. It stood on an island surrounded by a moat and was first built in the 12th century by officials of the Counts of Sulzbach. By the late 15th century it belonged to Georg von Trautenberg, then passed through several noble families including the Streitbergs and the Weickmanns. The castle was rebuilt in the early 18th century by Johann Rudolf von Schepper but fell into ruin by the late 19th century and was finally levelled by farming in the 20th. The site is now marked only by earthworks and a few standing walls. A low horseshoe-shaped rampart still rises about 2.5 m above the ground on the west side. A single wall stub shows where the main building once stood beside the vanished moat. All that survives above ground today is the old outer bailey with a 16th-century manor house built by the Streitberg family and a stone stable with a hipped roof added in 1794. Visitors can walk the faint traces of the ring ditch and rampart that once defended the island. The protected manor house in the outer bailey has simple stone walls and small square windows. The stable, now used for storage, still shows its original roof shape and heavy timber beams. Beyond the ruins the surrounding farmland stretches away, giving a quiet sense of the castle’s former island setting.