Burg Hauseck, castle ruin in Germany

Burg Hauseck is a castle ruin located on a hilltop in Etzelwang, Bavaria. The remains consist of stone walls from the 14th century perched on a steep rocky outcrop that overlooks the surrounding forest and fields.

The castle was built between 1329 and 1338 to secure ducal power in Bavaria. After changing ownership multiple times between Bohemian and Bavarian rulers, it was destroyed by troops from Brandenburg-Kulmbach during a war in 1552 and never repaired.

The castle gave its name to the hamlet of Hauseck below it, and the surrounding peaks carry castle names too: Rupprechtstein, Werdenstein and the 'Trutziger Kaiser' site lie nearby. The upper castle is a listed monument, with 14th-century foundation walls recorded under file number D-3-71-140-9.

The upper castle on its rock outcrop is freely accessible; a large part of the lower castle is private property and cannot be entered. From Hauseck, follow the road through the village to its end, where the private lower-castle grounds begin, then take the steep footpath up the western side of the rock. The site lies in the Fränkische Schweiz–Frankenjura nature park, about 1.4 km east-southeast of Hirschbach's church.

The castle was first documented in 1338, in a partition treaty over the Palatinate between the sons of Duke Rudolph I and their nephew Ruprecht II. It is absent from the 1329 Treaty of Pavia, which suggests it was built between 1329 and 1338, probably by Rudolph I against the Schenken von Reicheneck. No archaeological study of its origins had been made as of 2009.