Lauterstein castle is situated on a gneiss rock at the eastern end of Niederlauterstein village, above the left bank of Schwarze Pockau river, approximately 2 km north-west of Zöblitz and 4.5 km north-east of Marienberg.

[1] It was first mentioned in writing in 1304 when a document named a Johannis in Lutirstein of the ministerial family of Erdmannsdorf in the castle.

[3] Its purpose was the protection of a medieval trade route between Leipzig and Prague across the Ore Mountains.

They lost their influence in 1323 after they lost a feud with Altzella Abbey, and margrave Frederick the Brave enfeoffed the burgraves Albrecht IV von Altenburg und Otto I von Leisnig, who had helped to support him and the abbey, with Lauterstein castle and the town of Zcobelin (Zöblitz).

[4] Kaspar von Berbisdorf from Freiberg, an owner of mines and metalworks in the Ore Mountains, bought the lordship of Lauterstein for 4000 guilders from burgrave Otto II of Leisnig and Altenburg in 1434.