Schloss Marloffstein, Medieval château in Marloffstein, Germany

Schloss Marloffstein is a castle in the village of Marloffstein in Middle Franconia, Bavaria. Its core is a Baroque rebuild of 1691 to 1695 on the remains of a medieval castle, reduced in 1833 to its present form: a flat-pitched roof with a triangular gable and a massive balcony on the south side. In the courtyard, a pillar carries a Bamberg prince-bishopric coat of arms stone dated 1211.

A castle existed here before 1300, first documented in 1288 as Maurolfstein. Burned in the Second Margrave War in 1552, it was rebuilt by 1570 and badly damaged again in the Thirty Years' War. From 1691 to 1695 the von Stauffenberg family built a Baroque palace on the medieval remains; after 1792, when the seat of office moved to Bamberg, it decayed and in 1833 much of it was demolished.

The name Marloffstein was first recorded in 1288 as Maurolfstein, after a Maurolf who cannot be traced in the records. In the castle courtyard a pillar carries the coat of arms of the Prince-Bishopric of Bamberg with the year 1211. From 1885 the Schlossgaststätte served as the regular pub of the Erlangen student fraternity Frankonia.

Schloss Marloffstein stands in the village of Marloffstein, not on the Atzelsberg grounds. The building is privately owned and not open as a museum, so visitors see it from the street and the village lanes. Look for the massive balcony on the south side and the flat roof with its triangular gable, both added in 1833.

A coat of arms of the Prince-Bishopric of Bamberg set into a pillar in the castle courtyard bears the year 1211, the oldest surviving historical monument of the estate's link to Bamberg. The village itself was first recorded in writing in 1288 as Maurolfstein; the name-giver Maurolf cannot be documented historically.