Ranfels Castle

The history of the place was always closely linked to the manor of the same name. The Counts of Formbach or the Counts of Neuburg are presumed to be the builders. In 1207, the Bishops of Passau were the owners, who enfeoffed the Nobles of Hals with it in 1243. These then granted the lordship as a sub-fief. From 1259 to 1262, the brothers Albertus and Fridericus de Ranvels lived here. After the extinction of the Hals family, the Landgraves of Leuchtenberg took over Ranfels in 1375, and in 1417, it came into the possession of the Imperial Counts of Ortenburg through sale to Etzel I. In 1438, Etzel sold it to Duke Heinrich of Lower Bavaria. During the Landshut War of Succession, the castle was destroyed and subsequently rebuilt. In 1517, the knight Johann von Dachsberg zu Asbach took it over. In 1518, he established the castle chaplaincy with the associated castle chapel and fundamentally rebuilt the castle by 1520.

In 1784, the castle came into the possession of the St. Anna convent for noblewomen in Munich through purchase from the Dachsberg family. From there, Ranfels was administered by its own steward until the Bavarian State bought it in 1833. The state removed and sold many building components and converted the remaining buildings into the residence of the castle chaplain. In 1840, the year of the first Bavarian census, the municipality of Ranfels comprised 72 families and 332 people. 32 families with 72 members and 70 associated servants lived exclusively from agriculture and forestry.

In 1845, the castle benefice was converted into a curacy benefice due to its great distance from the parish of Schöllnach, and a separate cemetery was established. Through enlargements and additions in 1767 and 1824 (other sources: 1842), the former castle chapel fundamentally changed its appearance. In 1855, the village had 22 houses. In 1873, the Ranfels Volunteer Fire Department was founded. In 1923, it was elevated to a parish. The municipality of Ranfels counted 437 inhabitants in 1905, 467 in 1933, 471 in 1939, and only 345 in 1970 after a drastic population decline since the late 1950s. The village center of Ranfels itself hardly changed and had 131 inhabitants in 1970. Remoteness from traffic and industry and a lack of tourism are considered the causes of these population losses.

The number of agricultural and forestry businesses, however, steadily increased to 78 in 1971, albeit at the expense of the size of the owned land: while in 1840 the largest farm owned 84.5 hectares of land, in 1970 there was no longer any business with over 20 hectares of operational area. In 1970, the proportion of employed persons in agriculture and forestry was 55.2%. In 1972, Ranfels was incorporated into the larger Zenting as part of the regional reform in Bavaria.

Of the former castle, the gatehouse with adjacent residential buildings in the outer bailey area are still preserved. The inner courtyard is accessible. The parish church of St. Pankratius, which emerged from the castle chapel, stands on the site of the former main castle. It possesses baroque figures and has modern furnishings.