Loch Castle (german: Burg Loch) is a

protected Protection is any measure taken to guard a thing against damage caused by outside forces. Protection can be provided to physical objects, including organisms, to systems, and to intangible things like civil and political rights. Although th ...

ruin Ruins () are the remains of a civilization's architecture. The term refers to formerly intact structures that have fallen into a state of partial or total disrepair over time due to a variety of factors, such as lack of maintenance, deliberate ...

in the municipality of Loch in the Bavarian market borough of Nittendorf. It is also the symbol of Eichhofen, a village within the borough. Loch is a rare example of a

cave castle A cave castle (german: Höhlenburg) or grotto castle (German: ''Grottenburg'') is a residential or refuge castle that has been built into a natural cave. It falls within the category of hill castles. Unlike other types (such as water castles), su ...

in Bavaria; only in Stein an der Traun in Upper Bavaria is there another surviving example of this type of fortification.

History

The foundation date of the little

hill castle A hill castle or mountain castle is a castle built on a natural feature that stands above the surrounding terrain. It is a term derived from the German ''Höhenburg'' used in categorising castle sites by their topographical location. Hill castles a ...

is not precisely known. Historians believe it was built either in the 12th or the 14th century. Its founders were the Rammelsteins, lords of a nearby estate and ''

ministeriales The ''ministeriales'' (singular: ''ministerialis'') were a class of people raised up from serfdom and placed in positions of power and responsibility in the High Middle Ages in the Holy Roman Empire. The word and its German translations, ''Minist ...

'' of the

burgrave Burgrave, also rendered as burggrave (from german: Burggraf, la, burgravius, burggravius, burcgravius, burgicomes, also praefectus), was since the medieval period in Europe (mainly Germany) the official title for the ruler of a castle, especia ...

s of Regensburg. They erected the castle to guard a

hammer mill A hammer mill, hammer forge or hammer works was a workshop in the pre- industrial era that was typically used to manufacture semi-finished, wrought iron products or, sometimes, finished agricultural or mining tools, or military weapons. The feat ...

. In 1556, when the last male Rammelstein, Sebastian, died there was an inheritance dispute over the castle and its associated estates. In his will, Sebastian had left the site to his wife, Margareta, but his nephew, Wolf Heinrich Sauerzapf, who had married Sebastian’s sister, Magdalena, protested. The ensuing dispute was not resolved until 1573, when a ruling gave Loch Castle to the Sauerzapfs. No later than 1625, their descendant, Veit Philipp Sauerzapf, moved his residence to neighbouring Schönhofen, because he felt the castle was too uncomfortable to live in. Since then, the building has stood empty and was no longer used. It gradually fell into ruins. After his death in 1714, Christoph von Sauerzapf granted Loch Castle to the

Carthusian The Carthusians, also known as the Order of Carthusians ( la, Ordo Cartusiensis), are a Latin enclosed religious order of the Catholic Church. The order was founded by Bruno of Cologne in 1084 and includes both monks and nuns. The order has i ...

abbey of Prüll in Regensburg. In the wake of secularisation it was seized by the Bavarian state and ended up in the hands of the landlords of Eichhofen. Its last owners were Günther and Dietlinde von Braunbehrens, née Freiin von Werthern, and their descendant, Ingeborg Schönharting, née Braunbehrens. This family devoted themselves for some time to the preservation of the castle, but had to sell it for financial reasons and had themselves taken off the

land registry Land registration is any of various systems by which matters concerning ownership, possession, or other rights in land are formally recorded (usually with a government agency or department) to provide evidence of title, facilitate transactions, ...

. Since then the castle has been ownerless. Responsibility for it belongs to the Free State of Bavaria, within whose borders the castle ruins are located.

Description

Loch Castle consists of two caves sealed by stone walls. These caves are connected to a labyrinth of smaller rooms in the cave system. The largest space, with a floor area of 12.5 x 7 metres, was used as a residential area and was panelled with wood. It was heated by a fireplace that may still be seen today. The ceiling of this room has partly collapsed since the castle was abandoned, leaving it open to the surface. As a result, it may be entered from both the downhill and uphill sides. There are still brick walls and door spaces in this room. The cave is two storeys high, but the upper floor only has a small chamber. In addition other buildings were built outside the cave, against the rock face. The area around the cave was surrounded by a high curtain wall and protected by a ''

zwinger "" () is a German word for outer ward or outer bailey. It represents an open kill zone area between two defensive walls that is used for defensive purposes. s were built in the post-classical and early modern periods to improve the defence ...

''. The round ''

bergfried ''Bergfried'' (plural: ''bergfriede''; English: ''belfry''; French: ''tour-beffroi''; Spanish: ''torre del homenaje'') is a tall tower that is typically found in castles of the Middle Ages in German-speaking countries and in countries under Germ ...

'' of French design was placed immediately in front of the cave and is the only building that has survived intact. It is visible from a long way off. The roughly 22-metre-high tower is made of rusticated ashlar and has two-metre-thick walls at the base, reducing to 50 centimetres thickness by the 4th storey. Judging by its windows and

garderobe Garderobe is a historic term for a room in a medieval castle. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' gives as its first meaning a store-room for valuables, but also acknowledges "by extension, a private room, a bed-chamber; also a privy". The word der ...

(of which some of the medieval wooden elements have survived), it was designed as a relatively comfortable residence. Access was via an elevated entrance. It was restored in 1989.

Literature

* Andreas Boos: ''Burgen im Süden der Oberpfalz'' ("Castles in Southern Upper Palatinate"). Universitätsverlag Regensburg, Regensburg, 1998, , pp. 429–432. * Ursula Pfistermeister: ''Burgen der Oberpfalz'' ("Castles of Upper Palatinate"). Verlag Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg 1974, , p. 91.

External links

Loch Castle at burgenseite.de

Website with photographs and history of the ruins

Artist’s impression
by Wolfgang Braun Castles in Bavaria Cave castles Buildings and structures in Regensburg (district)