Pfünz Castle

The Baroque castle stands on the site of a stone fortified house of an Eichstätt ministerial family, first documented in 1166 with Merboto von Pfünz. In 1282, Albrecht Truchsess von Pfünz handed over the castle seat as a fief to the Prince-Bishopric. After 1353, the family disappears from the records; their seat passed to the Zantner family through the related Waltinger family. In 1451, Kunz Zantner zu Schönbrunn sold it to Heinrich Rohrmayer zu Gungolding. Bishop Wilhelm von Reichenau acquired it from his heirs in 1475 "for recreation and hunting" and undertook expansion work. A coat of arms stone from 1578, now embedded in a modern extension, indicates construction activity under Bishop Martin von Schaumberg.

Prince-Bishop Johann Anton Knebel von Katzenellenbogen (1705 to 1725) erected the current castle, probably according to plans by court architect Jakob Engel. New building plans by Maurizio Pedetti could not be realized. The last Prince-Bishop Joseph Graf von Stubenberg (1791 to 1824) – his coat of arms is above the portal – used to spend most of the summer here. The court garden then had "four large ponds stocked with fish and a canal so wide in a square around it that one could sail around in it with small pleasure boats".

After secularization, the castle was sold to private individuals for 6000 guilders. Among the frequently changing owners, Dr. Friedrich Winkelmann (1852 to 1934), who, among other things, excavated the Pfünz fort, deserves mention. In 1955, the diocese bought the castle back and converted it into a diocesan youth center.