Englburg, Archaeological site and architectural heritage monument in Tittling, Germany.
Englburg is a standing castle on a hill ridge above Tittling in the Bavarian Forest, about 25 km north of Passau. It is divided into the Hochschloss with two octagonal corner towers topped by onion domes and lanterns, an east building that once housed the well, a south wing and the patrimonial court building to the north; a round tower of the medieval fortification survives there. The irregular layout with a raised main building and a forecourt dates from the rebuild after 1394.
The noble lords of Hals built the hilltop castle, probably in the 11th century, as a border stronghold guarding the Goldenen Steig to Bohemia. In 1323 it passed as a fief to the counts of Schwarzenstein; Passau's citizens razed it in 1394, and the rebuild gave it its present irregular layout with a raised main building and a forecourt. Swedish troops destroyed it in 1634, and after a fire in 1874 it was restored in 1875.
The castle is still called Englburg, and the surrounding area is known as Dreiburgenland after the three castles here. The chapel on the upper floor of the Hochschloss is dedicated to St George and holds a Rococo altar; a fresco by the Englburg painter Wilhelm Niedermayer, painted after the Second World War, is on the outer wall of the forest chapel on a hill north of the castle.
The castle is privately used and not open to visitors, so it can only be viewed from outside. It stands on a hill ridge above Tittling, visible from afar; hiking trails run around it, including one to the Dreiburgensee. Since spring 2006 the Donau-Ilz cycle route from Hengersberg to Kalteneck passes below the Englburg.
On 21 August 1954, Federal President Theodor Heuss signed the law ratifying West Germany's accession to the Geneva Conventions on the Englburg. The castle had served as a military hospital in World War II and as a Red Cross lung sanatorium until 1950.
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