Eisenberg Castle, Bavaria

History

Eisenberg Castle was constructed in 1313 after the nobles of Hohenegg lost their castle, Loch, to the Tyrolean. They moved north to establish the lordship of Eisenberg, centered on this new fortress. Peter of Hohenegg placed it atop a high mountain and surrounded the main castle with an exceedingly high curtain wall, creating the impression of a huge tower. Two residential houses, a kitchen, and a chapel leaned against the inside of this wall.

The outer castle lay to the south, with access from the east, later walled up but still visible. In 1382 the Hohenegg nobles sold the castle to Austria. Austria made Frederic of Freyberg constable in 1390; his eldest son later built Hohenfreyberg.

Defenses were strengthened around 1500, but in 1525 local peasants conquered the castle during the German Peasants' War, causing heavy damage. Werner Volker of Freyberg rebuilt it ten years later with compensation payments from the peasants, adding a stair tower, bakery, bath, and several mured toilets, plus a new main gate to the west. On 15 September 1646, near the end of the Thirty Years' War, the Austrians burned Eisenberg, Freyberg, and Falkenstein in a scorched-earth policy. In the 1980s the Burgenverein Eisenberg and the community of Eisenberg restored the fabric and established a small museum in Zell.