Wernberg Castle

Wernberg Castle is located in Wernberg-Köblitz in the Upper Palatinate Forest. The castle is one of the best-preserved medieval castles in Bavaria.

Wernberg Castle was situated in the midst of the extensive dominion of the Landgraves of Leuchtenberg. In 1280, the castle was first mentioned in a sales contract. The Leuchtenbergers transferred the castle, named "Werdenberch," to Konrad von Paulsdorf. His daughter Adelheid married Engelhard Notthafft von Wildstein, through which Wernberg came into the possession of the Notthafft family. In 1367, Heinrich I Notthafft pledged his allodial castle Wernberg as a fief to the Kingdom of Bohemia; this feudal bond with Bohemia lasted until the Peace of Pressburg in 1805.

Wernberg Castle was the ancestral seat of the Wernberg line of the Notthafft family. In 1509, Georg, Kaspar, Heinrich, Hans, and Bernhard Notthafft sold Wernberg to Georg Wispeck von Velburg. In 1530, the castle and dominion of Wernberg returned to the Landgraves of Leuchtenberg through purchase. After the extinction of the Leuchtenbergers, Wernberg passed to Electoral Bavaria in 1647. Until the 19th century, various state offices were housed in the castle; from 1804, the building served as a detention center. From 1861, the old edifice served as a forced labor house and a rescue institution for fallen women and neglected girls. In 1873, the demolition of the historic building was considered but then rejected. In 1918, the castle came into the possession of the Counts Schall-Riacour, who had most recently rented the castle as an asylum seekers' residence.