Hofmarkschloss Niedertraubling: A Former Moated Castle and Hofmark Centre in Bavaria
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Germany
- Primary era
- Medieval
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page14 sections
History
Hofmarkschloss Niedertraubling is a former medieval lowland castle and manor centre in Germany, in Obertraubling, Bavaria. Built for the local nobility, it was first recorded in 1343 and was transformed into a moated manor complex during the second half of the seventeenth century. As the centre of a Hofmark, a noble estate with limited local administrative rights, it served both residential and jurisdictional functions.
The Weichser castle
The fortress at Traubling appears in a service charter issued on 21 January 1343 by Friedrich the Weichser of Traubling to the Bishop of Regensburg. Friedrich promised to serve and protect the bishop with his fortress. The site was probably older, since Friedrich had used the name “of Traubling” from 1309. The Weichser family had previously been based at Schloss Weichs near Regensburg between 1151 and 1280, before holding a residence or castle at Niedertraubling.
In 1367, the prince-bishopric of Regensburg, a territory ruled by the Bishop of Regensburg as both ecclesiastical and territorial lord, expelled the Weichsers from Niedertraubling and transferred the fortress to the knight Kontrad Lichtenberger. An arbitration document from 1369 required the bishop to repay Lichtenberger the sum owed for the redemption of his rights, after which the castle returned to the Weichser family.
The Nothafft possession and the Löwler War
The Nothafft family succeeded the Weichsers at Niedertraubling during the fourteenth century. Their shared ownership of the castles at Wernberg, Runding, Haibach, and Traubling was recorded in 1471. A disagreement between Georg and Albrecht Nothafft over these properties was settled in 1474.
Nothafft of Traubling became the first member of the knightly class to withdraw his service from the duke. This helped bring about the Löwler War, a late-fifteenth-century conflict between Bavarian nobles and the duke. Several castles, including those at Köfering and Triftlfing, were destroyed. Niedertraubling was besieged in 1492, but King Maximilian, later Emperor Maximilian I, was negotiating peace with Duke Albrecht during the siege, and the castle was not demolished.
Sales, noble residents, and wartime damage
After the Löwler War, Heinrich IV of Nothafft fell heavily into debt. On 21 November 1530 he sold the Hofmark of Niedertraubling, together with Embach, Mangolding, and Sengkofen, to his brother-in-law Christoph, Baron von Schwarzenberg. The Maxlrain family acquired the Hofmark in 1565, along with the villages of Mangolding and Sengkofen.
Emperor Matthias stayed at Schloss Niedertraubling during his journey from Straubing to Regensburg. Plague at Pfatter prevented him from spending the night there, so he reached Niedertraubling on 30 July 1613, rested there on 31 July, and took an early meal on 1 August before continuing through Obertraubling to the Imperial Diet at Regensburg. The diet was an assembly of the estates of the Holy Roman Empire.
Georg von Maxlrain died in 1631, and Christoph von Gleißental became his successor. A Protestant nobleman, Gleißental married Georg von Maxlrain’s widow in 1636 and died in Regensburg in 1650. By 30 June 1644, the possession had passed to Ulrich Schad of Mitterbibrach, a Württemberg-born Bavarian chamberlain and land-tax collector. Swedish troops reportedly set the castle on fire in autumn 1648, during the final devastation of the Thirty Years’ War, the major European conflict that lasted from 1618 to 1648.
Later ownership and heritage protection
Following several seventeenth-century changes of ownership, the Hofmark came into the possession of the Barons von Berchem. Wilhelm von Berchem sold the castle and Hofmark Niedertraubling in 1839 to Prince Maximilian Karl von Thurn und Taxis. The property was then leased to the Dietl family from 1839 to 1863 and, from 1 July 1963, to the Lang family.
The estate, including the surviving parts of the moated castle, is now held by the Burkart family, which had previously been based in Niedertraubling, now Burgweinting. The former castle is listed as a Bavarian architectural monument under designation D-3-75-179-5. Archaeological remains and finds in the area of the demolished Schloss, on the site of the medieval castle, are protected as an archaeological monument under designation D-3-7039-0190.
Remains
The medieval castle stood within the village opposite the present Gasthof Altes Schloss. It occupied an almost square area measuring about 50 metres on each side and was later developed as a moated complex. The surviving site is an archaeological and overbuilt area containing parts of the former castle’s buildings, moat, bridge, entrance works, and enclosing walls.
The moated castle layout
Philipp Apian described the castle as a large stronghold beside a pond. A 1720 engraving by Michael Wening shows a substantial moated complex approached by a bridge, with four wings and an eight-storey tower. Several buildings had stepped gables. The external entrance passed through service buildings enclosed by a wall. The associated church of St. Peter at Neutraubling also had an enclosing wall, while the park behind the castle contained several fountains.
Moat and bridge
Parts of the moat remain around the former castle area. A single-arched stone bridge from the post-medieval period survives as part of the approach to the complex, linking the surviving fabric with the documented arrangement of the moated castle.
Entrance remains
The former entrance is represented by two capped pillars and sections of a brick wall dating from the eighteenth or nineteenth century. These elements survive near the area of Hofmarkstraße and Schloßstraße.
Surviving buildings
Administrative house
An extant two-storey building with a hipped roof served formerly as an administrative house. Its structural core dates from the late medieval period and forms one of the principal surviving components of the estate.
Brewery
A three-storey former brewery survives with a gabled roof, a vaulted entrance, and windows with segmental arches. An inscription plaque on the building bears the year 1595, providing a date connected with its surviving fabric.
Barn and cattle stable
Between the administrative house and brewery stands a two-storey building with a gabled roof and a raised knee wall. It formerly served as a barn. The surviving complex also includes a former cattle stable, together with an enclosing wall in the area near Hofmarkstraße and Schloßstraße.
Demolished castle fabric and archaeology
The former bergfried, the principal fortified tower of a medieval German castle, was demolished in 1852. Archaeological remains and finds from the demolished castle area preserve evidence of the earlier fortress beneath and around the later overbuilt estate.
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