Falkenfels Castle

Falkenfels Castle is a castle on the "Burgberg" (Castle Hill), the highest elevation in the municipality of Falkenfels in the Lower Bavarian district of Straubing-Bogen in Bavaria.

Around 1100, the Counts of Bogen erected the hilltop castle on the rock, which slopes steeply on three sides. From 1232, the Knights of Hohenfels ruled the castle, and from 1400, the Falkensteiner of Falkenfels. In 1331, "Valkenfelss" is mentioned as a manorial estate in a 15th-century copy.

In 1425, the castle came into the possession of the Frauenberger family and remained so until their extinction in 1480. The castle was plundered by the Hussites in 1425 and conquered by troops of Duke Albrecht IV in the Böckler War in 1468. The Frauenberger were followed by the Paulsdorfer family. In the Löwler War, the castle was besieged for a week in 1492 and burned down after its surrender on June 8, 1492, but was subsequently rebuilt by Hans von Paulsdorf.

In 1525, ownership passed by marriage to the Seyboltstorffer family. From 1607 to 1796, the noble family of the Barons of Weichs owned Falkenfels Castle. During the Thirty Years' War, the castle was set on fire by the Swedes in 1641, but was also rebuilt afterwards. On April 15, 1796, Josef Maria von Weichs sold Falkenfels and the associated Hofmarken for 320,000 guilders to Baron Gabriel von Buchstetten. In 1807, the castle again went up in flames, but was rebuilt once more.

After the end of the Hofmark Falkenfels, the castle economy was dismantled in 1820. In 1821, the Lang family acquired the castle and established a brewery here, which existed until 1934. In 1925, a fire destroyed large parts of the complex, after which it was only partially rebuilt. From 1919 to 1950, the castle belonged to the Schimmelmann family. On May 8, 1951, furniture manufacturer Franz Xaver Baier from Straubing bought the castle and converted it into a hotel with a restaurant. The castle was increasingly used as a conference and congress building.