Erpenburg Castle (Ruin) (Brenken)

The Erpernburg, also known as Niederburg, is a small castle ruin in East Westphalia in the district of Paderborn. It is located in the Alme valley on the northern outskirts of Brenken, a district belonging to the North Rhine-Westphalian city of Büren.

Its exact construction date is not known; it is possible that the lowland castle was built as early as the 11th century. It was the residence of a noble family who called themselves the Lords of and zu Brenken. At the beginning of the 16th century, the family built Erpernburg Castle north of the castle on a hill above the Alme valley and moved their residence there. The castle, as the original ancestral seat, subsequently fell into disrepair before being devastated in the Thirty Years' War.

Of the complex located in a field, only the stump of a round tower and the gable wall of a residential building with two superimposed chimneys remain. The ruin, which is still privately owned today, is not managed and can only be viewed from a distance due to the existing risk of collapse.