Burg Scharzfels, Medieval rock castle ruins in Bad Lauterberg im Harz, Germany.

Scharzfels Castle is a ruin on a dolomite outcrop about 20 metres high and roughly 20 by 60 metres in plan, rising some 150 metres above the Oder valley east of Scharzfeld. A 19th-century stone stairway with a metal handrail climbs from the flat terrace of the outer ward, where a restaurant stands, to the rock face. Only fragments of the palas, tower and defensive wall survive, but tunnels and rooms hewn into the rock remain, including a corridor about 15 metres long behind the former drawbridge entrance.

Scharzfels was probably built in the 10th or 11th century and belonged early on to the Magdeburg archdiocese; Emperor Lothair of Süpplingenburg acquired it in 1131 and made it an imperial fort, recorded as castrum quoddam Scartuelt. From 1300 it passed as a fief to the counts of Hohnstein, and in 1596 Duke Henry Julius of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel inherited it. In 1627 it was expanded, garrisoned and heavily fortified, and in the 17th century it became a state gaol. On 25 September 1761, after a ten-day siege, its garrison surrendered to some 6,000 French troops, who blew up the castle four days later.

From 1695 the castle held Eleonore of Knesebeck, confidante of Princess Sophia Dorothea, in a tiny rock room where she saw only an old nurse daily. Her family bribed roofer Veit Rentsch, who cut through the roof and lowered her about 20 metres down the cliff in 1697. Today summer castle festivals with guided tours and music are held on the site.

The site can be reached via several hiking trails, including the Karst Trail and the BaudenSteig, with parking areas nearby. The walk to the top takes roughly an hour and requires sturdy footwear due to steep paths.

The castle had no gatehouse: from the top of the 19th-century stairway, access to the inner ward crossed a drawbridge into a tunnel hewn into the dolomite rock, about 15 metres long. The stairway was rebuilt in 1998 after the neo-Gothic gate structure collapsed in 1959.