Burgruine Wolfstein, Schönbühel-Aggsbach, Medieval castle ruins in Schönbühel-Aggsbach, Austria

Burgruine Wolfstein occupies a rocky spur above the Wolfsteinbach stream, about 110 by 50 metres in all, with a polygonal core castle and a northeastern outer bailey. The outer wall, pierced by keyhole-shaped loopholes, rises above a neck ditch over seven metres deep, now crossed by a modern wooden bridge on stone supports where drawbridges once hung. The gatehouse was rebuilt by the owners and is habitable again.

The castle's documented history begins in the early 13th century, when it was held as a fief of the Bavarian dukes by the Dürnstein line of the Kuenringer; Perchtold von Wolfstein appears in a charter of 1217. In 1355 Anna von Kuenring-Dürnstein inherited it and brought it to her husband Heidenreich von Maissau. After 1620 the Protestant owner Ludwig von Starhemberg lost it to Emperor Ferdinand II, and Göttweig Abbey bought it outright in 1630.

The name Wolfstein comes from a local legend: Saint Wolfgang is said to have rested on a stone in the valley below the castle during one of his journeys. The castle chapel, first mentioned in a document in 1392, stood on the first floor of the gate building beside the keep. In the 17th century Göttweig Abbey set up a new chapel in the former gate hall of the core castle's gatehouse.

The site is private property and can only be visited by prior arrangement with the owners. The walk from the hamlet of Wolfstein up to the ruin takes about ten minutes. A modern wooden bridge spans the moat to the two-winged main gate, which has a small side door.

The castle's supposed founding year of 1286, often repeated in literature, is a misdating probably based on a misinterpreted source. The first documented mention of the castle chapel dates to 1392, though it had existed for some time before. The core castle was originally small and was later enlarged with a gatehouse, a residential building around 1300, and a northeastern outer bailey in the 14th century.