Schloss in Pommelsbrunn, Water castle in Pommelsbrunn, Bavaria, Germany

Schloss Eschenbach is a former water castle at Eschenbach 406 in the Pommelsbrunn municipality, bounded by the Hirschbach stream on the southeast and the Pegnitz on the southwest. Its three-storey Palas may keep 13th-century masonry on the ground floor of the main wing, and a three-storey side wing was added at the northeast corner in 1554/55. A pointed-helmet tower dates from 1885, and a wall with a parapet walk stands on the south side of the inner courtyard.

Built in 1230 as a water castle, Eschenbach passed through the Hartenstein, Neidstein, Reicheneck and Wolfstein families before being sold in 1403 to Nuremberg mining entrepreneur Heinrich Harsdörffer. In 1508 it came to Hanns III Ebner through marriage. On 4 July 1552 soldiers of Margrave Albrecht Alcibiades destroyed the castle after Ebner refused to pay a fire tax; Hans IV Ebner rebuilt it in its present form in 1554.

The name Eschenbach has belonged to the Ebner family since 1508, when Hanns III. Ebner acquired it through his marriage to Ursula Harsdörffer; a 1725 engraving of the castle shows the combined Ebner and Harsdörffer coats of arms. Inside, an ancestral hall laid out around 1730 holds a collection of oil portraits of members of the Ebner family.

The castle is situated near Eschenbach in the Nürnberger Land area and is easy to locate at the village edge. Visitors should wear sturdy footwear since the surrounding paths and terrain can be uneven.

The moat was filled in between 1736 and 1740, so no water defence survives; of the four outer round towers only the west tower remains, restored in 1863 and known as the Fuchsen-Turm, once used as a prison. The pointed-helmet tower dates from 1885.