Fürth am Berg Castle (Ruin)

First mentioned in 1317, Fürth am Berg Castle served as a protective and administrative castle until 1660. It stood above the village of Fürth am Berg, a district of Neustadt bei Coburg in the Coburg district in the Upper Franconia administrative region. After three hundred years of decay, its remaining ruins were blown up in 1960.

The castle was located on a southeast-facing spur of the Fürther Berg between the two Neustadt districts of Horb and Fürth am Berg, 1700 meters from the Thuringian-Bavarian border. From its exposed location, one could overlook both the old trade route Nuremberg-Leipzig with a ford through the small river Steinach, and the country road Neustadt-Mitwitz. Access to the mountain spur and the remains of the castle is via Burgweg in Fürth am Berg.

The protective and administrative castle above Fürth am Berg was first mentioned in a document in 1317 as Feste Furttenberg. Bamberg bishops, under whose feudal sovereignty the castle stood, appointed bailiffs from the Franconian and Thuringian knighthood to hold court, collect tithes and escort tolls, and demand corvée. Thus, predominantly castle lords from old Franconian noble families came to the castle, among others from 1359 Berthold Schenk von Siemau, in 1383 and 1601 the Lords of Schaumberg, and from 1502 the Lords of Rosenau. From 1590 to 1601, the Lords of Brandenstein resided at the castle, alternating with the Lords of Würtzburg, who at the same time also owned the Mitwitz fief with its two castles.

Most recently, the Nuremberg family Pömer von Diepoltsdorf inhabited the castle until they moved down to the village in 1660 to a manor, which also belonged to the Bamberg bishops. Now the castle was uninhabited and gradually fell into disrepair. In 1740, the Bamberg bishop gave up the official residence and had the real estate of the manor divided into parcels and sold to the villagers. The latter used the castle ruins as a cheap quarry. Around 1850, the Coburg government finally prohibited the removal of building material.

Thus, considerable wall remains of the castle were preserved until 1960, as a pen-and-ink drawing by Max Schneider shows. These were demolished by blasting in 1960 and overgrown in the following decades.

First efforts to clear the castle spur of rubble and wild vegetation and to secure the ruin as a cultural asset were undertaken from 1964 to 1967 by Richard Gerlicher from Fürth. In 1980, the ruin was placed under protection as an archaeological monument. In 1989, the Förderkreis Fürther Burg e.V. was founded. Meanwhile, the castle grounds and a well-preserved cellar vault within them are again accessible.