The fortress built on land stolen from the Bamberg church

The keep of Altes Schloss stands as a jagged silhouette against the Bavarian sky, watching over the houses and market square of Bad Berneck. It is a ruin of the Gothic style, a sturdy Amtsburg from the late High Middle Ages that serves as the emblem for the small spa town today. While it feels like the primary seat of power, the ground beneath it holds a more complicated history of land theft and ecclesiastical law.

Before Altes Schloss existed, a different seat of nobility occupied the heights. In 1168, the first mention appears of Uodalrich II of the Walpote line, a free aristocratic family. They established the Walpotenburg, which sat on the site now occupied by the ruins of Hohenberneck Castle. However, their construction was a legal transgression; the Walpotenburg was built illegally on land owned by the Bamberg church of Saint James. This architectural trespassing forced the Diocese of Bamberg to intervene. In 1177, the year Poppo I became the first Andechs-Meranian prince-bishop, the fortress had to be officially enfeoffed to resolve the ownership dispute.

The Walpote line was short-lived in this specific seat, with the last mention of a Walpote of Berneck appearing in 1203. To the west, the old roadbed of the Via Imperii still climbs the hill, following the same path that carried travelers past these fortifications for generations.

A few metres above Altes Schloss, the ruins of Hohenberneck still sit as a ghost of the 12th century. Further away, at the exit to the spa park, the motte of Alt-Berneck marks another boundary of the old order.

Today, the atmosphere of the site is one of quiet public use. The ruins remain open for anyone to wander through at any time. Just to the north, the town's open-air stage sits beneath the stones of the keep, turning the site of ancient defense into a place for modern gathering. The lofty tower remains the town's defining feature, a permanent reminder of the time when building a castle was a matter of both masonry and mediation.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons