Schwarzenfeld Castle (german: Schloss Schwarzenfeld) is a historic castle in

Schwarzenfeld Schwarzenfeld is a municipality in the district of Schwandorf in Bavaria, Germany. The melodic death metal band Deadlock In concurrent computing, deadlock is any situation in which no member of some group of entities can proceed because ...

in the district of

Schwandorf Schwandorf is a town on the river Naab in the Upper Palatinate, Bavaria, Germany, which is the seat of the Schwandorf district. Sights * Catholic parish church of St. Jakob * Kreuzberg Church: Catholic parish, monastic and pilgrimage church of ...

Upper Palatinate The Upper Palatinate (german: Oberpfalz, , ) is one of the seven administrative districts of Bavaria, Germany, and is located in the east of Bavaria. Geography The Upper Palatinate is a landscape with low mountains and numerous ponds and lakes ...

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. It was the home of noble Holnstein family, including Count

Maximilian von Holnstein Count Maximilian Carl Theodor von Holnstein aus Bayern (19 October 1835 – 1 February 1895) was a German nobleman who was a playmate of princes Ludwig and Otto (both later kings of Bavaria), and friend of Ludwig on his accession as Ludwig II. C ...

, a close advisor to King

Ludwig II of Bavaria Ludwig II (Ludwig Otto Friedrich Wilhelm; 25 August 1845 – 13 June 1886) was King of Bavaria from 1864 until his death in 1886. He is sometimes called the Swan King or ('the Fairy Tale King'). He also held the titles of Count Palatine of the ...

History

The history of the Schwarzenfeld Castle goes back to the first half of the second millennium. Schwarzenfeld is first mentioned in 1015 in a deed of donation from

Emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

Henry II to the

Diocese of Bamberg The Archdiocese of Bamberg (lat. ''Archidioecesis Bambergensis'') is a diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in Bavaria and is one of 27 Roman Catholic dioceses in Germany. In 2015, 32.9% of the population identified as Catholic, and 15.6% of tho ...

(which Henry II created from parts of the

Diocese of Würzburg In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

and

Eichstätt Eichstätt () is a town in the federal state of Bavaria, Germany, and capital of the district of Eichstätt. It is located on the Altmühl river and has a population of around 13,000. Eichstätt is also the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese ...

). Schwarzenfeld Castle was built by Conrad Pullenhofer on the

Naab __NOTOC__ The Naab (Czech: ''Nába'') is a river in Bavaria, Germany, and is a left tributary of the Danube. Including its main source river Waldnaab, it is long. Its average discharge at the mouth is . The Naab is formed by the confluence of t ...

(a tributary of the

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...

) in 1372. In 1389, the noble family of Plankenfelser, who came from

Upper Franconia Upper Franconia (german: Oberfranken) is a ''Regierungsbezirk'' (administrative 'Regierungs''region 'bezirk'' of the state of Bavaria, southern Germany. It forms part of the historically significant region of Franconia, the others being Middle F ...

, took over the Castle. At the end of the 16th century, the Teuffel von Pirkensee family bought the estate, which had been devastated during the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (80 ...

along with the village of

Holnstein family

After changing hands several more times, Count Maximilian Joseph von Holnstein, the hereditary governor of the

, acquired Schwarzenfeld in 1789. Count Holnstein was a grandson of Emperor Charles VII of Bavaria (by his mistress

Maria Caroline Charlotte von Ingenheim Countess Maria Caroline Charlotte von Spreti, born Baroness von Ingenheim (1704–1749), was a German courtier and the royal mistress of Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor, from 1719–1723. Life Maria Caroline Charlotte von Ingenheim was daugh ...

), and was married to Princess Maria Josepha of

Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst was a county in northeastern Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The name Hohenlohe derives from the castle of Hohenloch near Uffenheim in Mittelfranken, which came into the possession of the descendants of Conrad of ...

(eldest daughter of Prince Charles Albert II). After Count Holnstein died in 1824, Schwarzenfeld was inherited by his son, Count Carl Theodor von Holnstein, the first husband of celebrated beauty

Caroline von Holnstein Caroline von Holnstein (8 May 1815 in Schloss Fronberg/ Schwandorf – 24 July 1859, Fronberg/Schwandorf) was a German noblewoman, best known for her appearance in the Gallery of Beauties. Early life Caroline Maximiliana Maria Freiin von Spie ...

of Schloss Fronberg. Upon the death of Count Carl in 1857, Schwarzenfeld was inherited by his only son, Count

, the most famous member of the von Holnstein family. Between 1890 and 1892, Holnstein had Julius Hofmann (the engineer behind

Neuschwanstein Castle Neuschwanstein Castle (german: Schloss Neuschwanstein, , Southern Bavarian: ''Schloss Neischwanstoa'') is a 19th-century historicist palace on a rugged hill above the village of Hohenschwangau near Füssen in southwest Bavaria, Germany. The pa ...

) rebuild and enlarge the castle to include its outbuildings and the two towers in the "

historicism Historicism is an approach to explaining the existence of phenomena, especially social and cultural practices (including ideas and beliefs), by studying their history, that is, by studying the process by which they came about. The term is widely u ...

" style. Holnstein retired to his castle in Schwarzenfeld in 1893 and lived there until his death in 1895. Count Holnstein's widow Maximiliane (née Baroness von Gumppenberg-Pöttmes) lived in the castle until 1907 when the family moved to

Upper Bavaria Upper Bavaria (german: Oberbayern, ; ) is one of the seven administrative districts of Bavaria, Germany. Geography Upper Bavaria is located in the southern portion of Bavaria, and is centered on the city of Munich, both state capital and seat o ...

. The Castle remained unused for a long period of time apart from several short-term leases. In 1934, Maximilian's grandson, Count Ludwig Maximilian von Holnstein (1897–1966), sold the castle to the

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...

of Schwarzenfeld.

Present day

The castle changed hands frequently, including to the

National Socialist People's Welfare The National Socialist People's Welfare (german: Nationalsozialistische Volkswohlfahrt, NSV) was a social welfare organization during the Third Reich. The NSV was originally established in 1931 as a small Nazi Party-affiliated charity active loca ...

, before a major fire broke out on 25 June 1982. In 1995, Hans Nabburg sold the castle ruins to investors who converted it into a conference hotel with the foundation stone being laid on 15 September 1995 by the Bavarian Prime Minister

Edmund Stoiber Edmund Rüdiger Stoiber (born 28 September 1941) is a German politician who served as the 16th Minister President of the States of Germany, state of Bavaria between 1993 and 2007 and chairman of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria, Christian So ...

. Today the Castle is the site of the Annual Shell Show and Fair, and continues to operate as a convention center and luxury hotel.

Gallery

Schloss Schwarzenfeld 1681.pdf, Map of Schwarzenfeld, Schloss Schwarzenfeld ret old.jpg, Photograph of the castle, 2008 Schloss Schwarzenfeld1.jpg, Photograph of the castle, 2008 Schloss Schwarzenfeld 001.jpg, Photograph of the castle, 2017 Schloss Schwarzenfeld 008.jpg, Detail of the tower of the castle, 2017

References

External links

Official homepage
(in English)

(in German) {{DEFAULTSORT:Schwarzenfeld Castle Castles in Bavaria Palaces in Bavaria Buildings and structures in Schwandorf (district)