Schloss Lichtenegg

Schloss Lichtenegg stands on a wooded hill above the Schenkenbachtal valley, north-west of Harthausen in Epfendorf. It is the only surviving inhabited castle in the upper Neckar valley. The site began as a medieval fortress built between the mid-12th and mid-13th centuries. Around 1560 the present buildings replaced the old castle. The complex remains in private hands and is not open to the public. The castle’s history is tied to the Lords of Geroldseck, who held it as a fief from the late 13th century. In 1471 it passed to Württemberg, then to the Hacken, Ehingen and Rosenfeld families. The Stain family acquired it in 1549 and rebuilt the castle. After 1868 or 1870 the Baron von Stain sold it to the Freiherr von Neubronner, who carried out further renovations in the 19th century. The name Lichtenegg dates only from 1836. The castle consists of two asymmetrical wings joined by a narrow passage. The medieval basement survives with a Romanesque vault and an original archway. A ruined tower stands on the south corner of the curtain wall. Nearby is the late-Renaissance St Michael’s chapel, built in 1720. Inside the chapel a slab marks the grave of Karl Heinrich von Neubronner, a former lord and writer.