Spitzenberg Castle

Spitzenberg Castle is located in the municipality of Mauerkirchen in the district of Braunau.

The exact time of origin of Spitzenberg Castle is uncertain. In 1388, Spitzenberg is mentioned as the ancestral seat of the Mauerkirchner family. In 1481, the Granser family owned the castle. Afterwards, Friedrich Mauerkircher, Chancellor to Duke Georg of Bavaria-Landshut and later Bishop of Passau, received Spitzenberg as a fief in 1479. He had Spitzenberg fortified with a ring wall and added a new tower. After his death on November 28, 1485, his nephew and heir Wolfgang already named himself after Spitzenberg. When he died in 1503, the property passed to his stepbrother Stephan Wäninger (Wanninger). During the Palatinate War of Succession, Spitzenberg was occupied in 1504. His grandson Stefan Wäninger von Spitzenberg sold the castle in 1588 to his brother-in-law Joachim Rainer zu Laufenbach. He, in turn, sold Spitzenberg around 1590 to Wolf Josef Hochkircher von Ysselsdorf. In 1616, Pankraz von Freiberg zu Hochaschnau acquired the castle from his brother-in-law Wolf Josef Höhenkirchner. Baron Adam Kaspar Freiherr von Freyberg zu Hohenaschau had the castle rebuilt from the ground up in 1700. The Freibergs remained in possession of Spitzenberg until 1750. Then Franz Peter von Rosenbusch, Bavarian Chamberlain, Privy Councillor and Revision Councillor, acquired the property. From 1812, the Counts Lerchenberg were at Spitzenberg. They were followed by the Neweklowsky family from Freistadt. In 1829, Philipp Freiherr von Venningen, already owner of Aspach Castle, bought Spitzenberg Castle. At the end of the 19th century, Friedrich Bergmüller (†1884), mayor and member of the Reichstag, was the owner of Spitzenberg Castle. Around the turn of the 20th century, the castle came into peasant ownership.