Schloss Untermerzbach, Heritage château in Untermerzbach, Germany.

Schloss Untermerzbach is a pale yellow château on a stone terrace above the village. Its central three-storey block is flanked by two outer wings rising one storey higher, each with a dark mansard roof and dormer windows. A stone balustrade runs along the terrace, supported by a wall with a central arch and two descending staircases.

The castle hill was probably the site of the medieval seat of the Lords of Merzbach, whose line died out in the 13th or 14th century and passed by inheritance to the Barons of Rotenhan. A sandstone plaque on the north tower with the Rotenhan-Altenstein marriage coat of arms gives 1534 as the building date. In the second half of the 18th century the old castle was rebuilt as an early Neoclassical country seat. The Pallottines acquired it in 1922 and used it as a novitiate and philosophical college until 2009; since 2011 it has served as an academy of the VBG statutory accident insurance.

The castle displays building methods typical of this region and reflects how nobility designed their homes here. You can see in the details how important craftsmanship and local traditions were to the builders.

Information about the castle can be found through Bavarian heritage databases and local tourism offices. Plan enough time to explore the grounds and surroundings, as there are several areas to discover.

The sandstone plaque on the north tower bears the Rotenhan-Altenstein marriage coat of arms and the year 1534, the documented building date. The counts of Rottenhan added a second 't' to their name in the 18th century to distinguish themselves from their baronial relatives. The large ground-floor hall served the Pallottines as a chapel before their church was built, then became a dining hall in the 1960s.