Burgstall Haideck

Oberkotzau, Germany, Germany

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Burgstall Haideck is the remains of a medieval spur castle located on a 568-meter-high rock plateau of the Haidberg east of the hamlet of Haideck, now part of Oberkotzau in the Hof district of Upper Franconia, Bavaria, Germany.

Built as a sub-fortress (Vorwerk) of the ancestral seat of the noble von Kotzau family, the castle was destroyed in 1335 or 1337 during a feud against the Imperial cities, particularly Eger, and was subsequently described as a deserted castle. The Hussites later destroyed a tower that had apparently been rebuilt, and in 1540 stones were removed from the site for construction projects in Oberkotzau.

A small castle (Schlösslein) below the Burgstall burned down in 1607 but was rebuilt shortly afterward, and the site has been owned by various families including the Zedtwitz, Müffling, and multiple times by the Hohenzollerns as Burgrafen, Markgrafen, and Freiherren von Kotzau. The castle stands on a fenced rock plateau with steep slopes on the west and east sides protected like a ward by natural rock formations, with the western side serving as the entrance.