Burg Scharfeneck

Austria, Austria

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Burg Scharfeneck is a ruined medieval castle located near Mannersdorf am Leithagebirge in Lower Austria, Austria, dating back possibly to the 11th century but notably rebuilt or expanded around 1400.

The castle was originally built on a 347‑metre hill called Schlossberg and served as a strategically important border fortress between Hungary and Austria, associated with the Hungarian noble family of the Scharfenecker, who were powerful and favored by Hungarian kings around the early 15th century. Its architecture is rectangular with thick stone walls up to 4.5 metres wide, four corner bastions (rondelles), and a deep moat along the northern and eastern sides, while the central feature was a massive round keep (bergfried) originally 24 metres high. 

The keep was destroyed by a lightning strike during a spring thunderstorm in 1555 and was never rebuilt, and though the stronghold gradually fell into ruin and was abandoned by the late 13th to early 15th centuries in some interpretations, the site continued to be used as a refuge in later crises such as the Turkish wars and Kuruc invasions.