Gaillenreuth Castle

Gaillenreuth Castle is located high above the Wiesent on the western upper valley edge in the village of Burggaillenreuth. The village belongs to the town of Ebermannstadt in the district of Forchheim in Bavaria.

Only the southern part of the hilltop castle remains. In addition to parts of the outer bailey, a residential tower from the period after 1632 still stands.

The castle is one of the six castles that the Bamberg Bishop Otto I von Mistelbach (1102–1139) acquired in 1122 for the Prince-Bishopric of Bamberg. Nothing is known about the previous owners or builders of the castle.

The next documentary mention of the castle comes from an addendum to the legal book of the Bamberg Bishop Friedrich von Hohenlohe (1342–1352). According to this, the Bamberg Bishop Leopold III von Bebenburg (1353–1363) paid 100 pounds Heller to Konrad von Egloffstein for the maintenance of the castle.

Between 1353 and 1359, the castle seems to have completely come into the possession of the Lords of Egloffstein as an episcopal fief, with a part of the castle becoming their property over time. In 1522, Konrad XI von Egloffstein enfeoffed the free-owned part of the castle to the Bamberg Bishop Georg III von Limpurg (1505–1522).

In 1525, the castle was burned down in the German Peasants' War, but rebuilt by Konz von Egloffstein. In the Thirty Years' War, it was destroyed on July 8, 1632, by Croatian troops. The time of the subsequent reconstruction is not known. However, it can be assumed that only the southern part was rebuilt. In 1638, the Lords of Egloffstein redeemed the castle from the episcopal feudal association through exchange. The Burggaillenreuth line of the Lords of Egloffstein died out in 1682 with Hans Philipp II von Egloffstein.

In 1684, the Lords of Egloffstein sold their free-owned share of the castle to Baron Karl Friedrich Voit von Rieneck. In 1810, Anton Joseph Freiherr von Horneck acquired the castle. In 1847, it was described as dilapidated. A renovation of the remaining buildings was carried out around this time by August Horneck von Weinheim. The castle is in private ownership.

The castle has nothing to do with the robber knight Eppelein von Gailingen, who was executed in 1381.