Burgruine Leuchtenberg

Because the sun was shining and that's rare in Bavaria, we took advantage of the "Family Day" (On Sunday's everything is close in Germany because, they believe Sunday's should be spent with your family, which I agree with) and decided to check out another castle ruin! About 30 minutes away is Burgruine Leuchtenberg.

Burgruine Leuchtenberg is the largest and best preserved castle ruins of Upper Palatinate. The hill fort stands on the summit of the 585 meter high mountain and lighting is one of the most scenic spots in the region. The castle was built by the Landgrave of Leuchtenberg, an influential medieval noble family, in the type of medieval knight fortresses around 1300th. However, the Landgrave's left the castle in 1322. Today the castle ruin is as Freilichtbuhne it is used as a venue to annually hold the "Burgfestspiele Leuchtenberg" a medieval festival. 

 The castle ruins are literally in the town of Leuchtenberg. It's about 10 minutes outside of Weiden. At first glance it doesn't look like there is a castle in the town. But once you're in the town, you can see the ruins on the top of the hill. There's free parking right outside of the castle. It's a beautiful view from the top. Majority of the time there isn't a fee to get into castle ruins, but I think because this is the largest in Upper Palatinate region they charge 2 euros per person. Rylie was allowed to come in with us. It was 1 euro for us to bring her in.

To the left of the entrance, their is a chapel is well-preserved. The narrow tower of the chapel has a at the bottom of a Gothic, narrow lancet windows in the choir and is likely to be incurred before 1300. Back in the day, it wasn't a chapel, but the actual living quarters! 

 

The ruins it self is pretty impressive. We spent a good portion of our time there exploring. There were a lot of things for us to play with.

 

 Drew was trying to get Rylie in the cage, she wouldn't stay in there without him.

 There was a bar too!

The doors were tiny!

Drew says it was his favorite castle that we've ever been to. The most impressive part was the hall on the ground floor of the building from the 14th or 15th century. The beautiful arch is supported by a hexagonal center column. "The Knights' Hall" was a heat able lounge, dining room and banquet hall for Burgmannen who were stationed at the castle. In the hall there were medieval helmets, mailings, and gloves that Drew got to put on. He looked like a real knight! 

 

 My adorable man child ;)

There was even a torture device? Or prison device that you could stick your head into. My hands could fit out easily, but my head was too big to fit through the neck portion.

In the Dungeon.

After playing around in the hall, we headed up the tower. I'm not a fan of heights, of course Drew likes to climb to the top of everything. At the top of the tower, it was decorated. It looked like someone proposed a couple days before hand. There were flowers and balloons, it was very beautiful and the views from the top was definitely worth the climb up.

She's so curious!

Check out that view!

The entrance view from the foot of the tower

I had a lot of fun at this castle. We only spent a couple hours there since we had also planned to check out the Flossenburg ruins. I'd suggest getting to this castle early by the time we left a lot more people had showed up. Drew says this was his favorite castle to date, I wouldn't say it was mine, but I did have fun and it was nice to get out an enjoy the sunshine! 

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GPS Address: Burgweg 6, 92705 Leuchtenberg

Cost: Adults: 2 Euro | Children & Dogs: 1 Euro