Burg Lohrbach

Burg Lohrbach stands in Lohrbach, Mosbach, Germany, and was constructed in the tenth century by medieval German builders as a water castle.

The early medieval phase saw the fortress established beside a dammed pond to control local waterways. Around the year 1000 the site is said to have passed as an imperial fief to the Counts of Lauffen. After the Lauffen line died out the manor moved into the hands of the Lords of Dürn and, by 1251, belonged to the Lords of Limpurg. A member of that family, Ulrich von Lorbach, appears in records in 1277; he later joined the Knights Hospitaller and by about 1291 the Order held the castle.

At the end of the thirteenth century the Knights Hospitaller complained that Eberhard I of Württemberg had caused damage to the site, a dispute recorded in 1299. Before 1350 the Order sold the property to Konrad von Limpurg, who granted half the estate as a fief to Eberhard II. In 1409 the Limpurgs raised money by pawning the castle and village to Johann von Hirschhorn. Four years later Count Palatine Otto I of Mosbach acquired the complex, and the rectangular gate tower that survives today was either erected or renewed during his tenure, carrying his coat of arms.

In 1499 the line of Pfalz-Mosbach ended and the castle and settlement became part of the holdings of the Electoral Palatinate. The north wing, with window openings of late Gothic character, is attributed to Elector Ludwig V. In the sixteenth century Elector Friedrich III transformed parts of the site toward Renaissance conventions. He spent several months at the castle in 1564 and conducted official business there. From 1576 until 1599 the complex served as the residence for his widow, Electress Amalie. In subsequent years the castle functioned as the Palatine cellar, managing wine and tithes for eighteen places and multiple farms. During the turmoil of the Thirty Years’ War an adjacent pond gradually filled with silt.

In 1763 the tithe barn and its round tower outside the outer enclosure were adapted for use as a Catholic church according to designs by Franz Wilhelm Rabaliatti. Severe fires in 1780 and again in 1797 destroyed large parts of the middle and north wings; those sections were rebuilt at a lower height and this reconstruction largely determined the complex’s present silhouette. Political transfers followed in the early nineteenth century, with ownership passing in 1803 to the Counts of Leiningen-Billigheim, in 1806 briefly to the Grand Duchy of Baden, and then back to the Leiningens, who retained the estate until 1947. Beginning in 1808 the buildings were reconfigured to house state officials and staff, with a forester’s apartment placed on the second floor of the princely building, attic accommodation for forest assistants, and tenant dwellings in the middle and north wings.

Throughout the nineteenth century several outer elements that had become unsafe were taken down, including a second round tower, the outer bridge, a bridge gatehouse and the stair access to the main tower; curtain walls were lowered in places. Agricultural use increased, with parts of the lower floors converted to stables and fodder stores under a system of leased farm operations. After mid-twentieth-century institutional ownership by the Johannesanstalten Mosbach, renovation work was begun but discontinued following vacancy. The property was sold into private hands in 1970 and again in 1982. Since the 1980s most of the castle buildings have been adapted into apartments and holiday flats, and the former tithe barn, which ceased church use after a partial ceiling collapse in 1966, was later fitted for residential and commercial occupancy. The complex remains privately owned and is not open to visitors.