The best walks and hikes around Wernberg-Köblitz

Wonderful landscape, here is a place of peace and relaxation

Banneux Chapel, Schilternbach Sixty years ago, the small Chapel of the Virgin Mary was built east of Wernberg – tucked away between forest and meadows at the confluence of the Kötschdorfer Bach and Schilterbach streams. It was sometimes called "Madonna im Wiesengrund" or "Maria im Firn" (Our Lady of the Meadows) or "Mary in the Pine Trees." The open, circular structure is dedicated to Our Lady of Banneux. During the Rosary Service on October 27, 1955, hundreds of believers marched in a candlelight procession with the statue of the Virgin Mary from the parish church of St. Anna to the newly built chapel on the Schilterbach stream to dedicate it to the Blessed Virgin of the Poor and Sick. The chapel was donated by Sophie Breu. Sophie Breu, director of the Schlenz sanatorium St. Michael, was a great admirer of the apparitions of the Virgin Mary at Banneux in Belgium. According to the report, Joan Jacob, the pastor of Banneux, where Our Lady is said to have appeared eight times to twelve-year-old Mariette Beco between January 15 and March 2, 1933, traveled specifically for the consecration and brought the statue with him. For many years, the Wernberg Chapel on the Schilterbach stream was a frequent meeting place for May devotions, October rosaries, and supplication processions. The construction of several chapels and the emergence of Marian veneration sites can be traced back to the initiative of Sister Sophie Breu. She ran the well-known Schlenz sanatorium in Wernberg. The many letters of thanks from her patients, which still exist today, testify to her many successful healings. The advertising slogan was "Operation without knife and blood." Sophie Breu, a native of Wernberg, joined the Order of the Sisters of Mercy in 1928 after training as a nurse and nurse. She learned the methods of medicinal herbal and hyperthermic baths from Maria Schlenz. From humble beginnings, she began her own business in 1937 and worked with perseverance and tenacity toward her life's goal of helping the sick with this method. The chapel is owned by the Regensburg Episcopal Administration. Source: Excerpts from www.onetz.de/deutschland-und-die-welt-r/lokales/zur-madonna-im-wiesengrund-d1014170.html

Wernberg Castle The earliest documented mention of the castle "Werdenberch", which was founded by the Landgraves of Leuchtenberg, dates back to 1280, when the castle came into the possession of Konrad von Paulsdorf. The following year, his daughter brought Wernberg into the possession of the Nothaft family through marriage, who lived here until the 16th century. In 1367, Heinrich I Nothaft gave his free Wernberg Castle to the Kingdom of Bohemia as a fief. In 1509, Georg, Kaspar, Heinrich, Hans and Bernhard Nothaft sold Wernberg Castle to Georg Wispeck von Velburg. In 1530, Johann IV, Landgrave of Leuchtenberg, acquired the castle, which came to the Electorate of Bavaria when the Leuchtenberg family died out in 1647 and became the seat of the custodianship for the Upper Palatinate from 1704 to 1803. During the Thirty Years' War, Wernberg Castle was occupied and plundered by Mansfeld troops in 1621, Swedish troops in 1634, and then imperial troops. At the end of the war, the castle was in a desolate state. From 1856/57 to 1859, the castle served as a forced labor house and from 1861 as a "rescue center for fallen women and neglected girls." In 1918, Wernberg passed to Andreas Graf Schall-Riacour, who rented it out as a home for asylum seekers. From 1804, Wernberg temporarily degenerated into a penal institution. In 1992, the municipality, the state, and Klaus Conrad, owner of the Conrad electronics group, raised a total of 27 million DM to fundamentally renovate the partially ruined castle. First, the castle became a modern hotel and conference center with Michelin-star cuisine, then a private clinic in 2019. Since then, it has been closed to visitors. This means that a unique medieval building is unfortunately hidden from the public. The Wernberg Castle, built in the middle of the 13th century, included the mighty square keep, the palace in the north and the ring wall. The Nothafts increased the density of the buildings and built, among other things, the castle chapel of St. George, which was consecrated in 1401 and then remodeled in the Baroque style in 1712. The south wing was built in 1478, and the north wing was remodeled at the same time. The front moat and the castle gate, which was fortified by a drawbridge, probably also date from this period. The inner courtyard with its two-storey arcades and the stair tower clearly exudes the Renaissance style. In 1731, further repairs were necessary. In 1920, under Andreas Graf Schall-Riacour, the south wing was rebuilt, but it partially burned down in 1942. Source: www.hdbg.eu/burgen/detail/burg-wernberg/98

Nice path around the castle

a wonderful place to stay

always worth a visit because of the route.

Nice starting point for tours around the Feistelberg or along the Naab

Always a nice experience to drive to the wind turbines