Burgruine Helfenberg, Medieval castle ruin in Velburg, Germany

Burgruine Helfenberg is a castle ruin in the Upper Palatinate perched at about 613 meters elevation, with stone walls and outer defenses surrounded by thick forest. The remains reveal foundations and broken walls where residential buildings, defense towers, and fortifications once rose.

An undated charter from 1198–1217 records Count Ulrich of Velburg transferring the castle to the Diocese of Regensburg; Wirnt von Plankenstein served as its first administrator. In 1232 it passed as a fief to the Hohenfels ministerials, who later called themselves Ehrenfelser. After 1370 Pfalzgraf Ruprecht I acquired it, and it was burned down in the Landshut War of Succession. In 1628 it fell to Duke Maximilian of Bavaria, who gave it to Johann t'Serclaes von Tilly in 1632; the Tilly family converted it into a Baroque palace in 1699–1707.

The name Helfenberg is not tied to a family of that name: the castle passed in 1232 as a fief to the Hohenfels, ministerials of the Regensburg bishops, who renamed themselves Ehrenfelser after Konrad von Hohenfels's failed assassination attempt on King Conrad IV. The Tilly family held the estate from 1632, and after their line died out the Bavarian elector installed a caretaker. Furniture from the former palace is kept in the Gasthof Winkler in Lengenfeld.

A parking area with an information board sits on the road between Lengenfeld and Velburg, right by the A3. From there the public ruin is a 15–20 minute walk. No measures have been taken to secure the surviving masonry, and the ruins are overgrown by forest, so watch your footing.

The Baroque palace built by Count Ferdinand Lorenz Xaver Tilly between 1699 and 1707 stood for only about a century. After the Tilly family died out, French Revolutionary troops plundered it in 1796, and in 1807 it was sold for 200 gulden to be demolished; its stones were reused in nearby buildings. Furniture from the palace survives in the Gasthof Winkler in Lengenfeld.