Germany · Still standing
Stein Castle
Schloss Stein an der Traun
Stein Castle (Schloss Stein) in Stein an der Traun is a cave castle made of three linked elements: an upper house set on a roughly 50-metre-high nagelfluh rock face, a cave castle cut into the rock that hides a passage to the Traun valley, and a lower house in the town. First recorded in 1135, it has long regional associations including the legendary robber knight Hainz von Stein. The site today is owned by the Stein Castle Brewery and the lower house houses a private school.
Its prime
1200
Today
Still standing
As it stood in 1200
What Stein Castle looked like in its prime.
Perched on an almost 50-metre-high pale nagelfluh (conglomerate) cliff, the castle group consists of a rectangular stone upper house with a steep, simple roofline and few windows; below this the cliff face is cut with caves and a concealed rock passage leading toward the Traun valley; at the cliff base and spreading into the village are the lower-house buildings with plastered walls and clustered red-tiled roofs. Heavily wooded ground rises behind the upper house, and the cliff shows horizontal, light-coloured rock strata with carved openings.
Its story
The story of Stein Castle.
Stein Castle at Stein an der Traun is the most important cave castle in Germany, made of three linked elements: the upper house on an almost 50-metre nagelfluh rock face, the cave castle cut into the rock beneath it, hiding a passage down to the Traun valley, and the lower house in the town itself. First recorded in 1135, it carries long regional associations, including the legend of the robber knight Hainz von Stein.
The castle was in the possession of the Toerring family from the 13th century until 1633, when Count Carl Fugger von Kirchberg bought the property; it later passed by marriage to the Freiherren von Lösch. In 1845 Amélie de Beauharnais, widow of the Emperor of Brazil, bought Stein for herself and her daughter, and in 1890 it went to Count Joseph zu Arco-Zinneberg.
Today the upper house, rock castle and lower house are the property of the Stein Castle Brewery, founded in 1907 and owned by the Wiskott family since 1934, while the lower house accommodates a private school.
Step inside
7 places to explore in 1200.
The record describes 7 distinct spots at Stein Castle, including 1 interior: rock passage (interior). Create your own photoreal reconstruction and explore every one, more scenes means more rooms, more angles, and more of the place to stand in.
Build Your Own Castle
Recreate Stein Castle with AI to explore it.
The artist rebuilds it as it stood in 1200, a photoreal reconstruction that belongs to you alone. Pay with coins, no subscription needed.
Recreate this castle →Castle Siege
Play Castle Siege at Stein Castle.
A strategy game played on Stein Castle’s real ground plan: the same surveyed walls shown in the archive below. Post your finite garrison on the battlements between assaults, then hold out as rams, siege towers, trebuchets and sappers arrive in ever-worse waves.
Sign in free to see the garrison muster. One castle costs 150 Clan Coins and is yours forever.
Sign in to take command →Whose castle
Clans who held Stein Castle.
The families that held Stein Castle for a decade or more across its history, follow a name to its clan.
Toerring
In the possession of the Toerring family from the 13th century until 1633.
Fugger
Count Carl Fugger von Kirchberg bought the property from the Toerrings in 1633.
Lösch
Passed by marriage to the Freiherren von Lösch.
Beauharnais
Bought in 1845 by Amélie de Beauharnais, widow of the Emperor of Brazil, for herself and her daughter.
Arco-Zinneberg
Went to Count Joseph zu Arco-Zinneberg in 1890.
From the archive
Stein Castle on paper: the measured plan and period views.
The survey plan and photographs below are the ground truth this page's reconstructions are checked against, drawn and photographed while the castle was still a working garrison. Every image is public-domain or openly licensed, with its source named.
Stein Castle, museum, anteroom with exhibits
· Deutsche Fotothek (via Europeana)
CC BY-SA
Ansicht von Schloss Stein in Hartenstein, Lithographie, 1835
· Deutsche Fotothek (via Europeana)
CC BY-SA
Burg Stein, Inneres, Museum, Ausstellung im Erdgeschoss
· Deutsche Fotothek (via Europeana)
CC BY-SA
