The ruins of the spur castle are located in the Franconian Switzerland-Veldenstein Forest Nature Park about 800 metres east of the church in the village of Streitberg.

At that time there was probably only a small wooden outer bailey in front of the main castle on the distinctive shoulder of rock above the Wiesent valley.

When Conrad of Schlüsselberg got into a feud in 1347 over the imposition of a toll with the bishops of Würzburg and Bamberg and the Burgrave of Nuremberg, they attacked and defeated him.

The increasing decline of the castle ruins prompted the municipality of Streitberg shortly after the Second World War to start implementing the first conservation measures.

In 1996, the county of Forchheim began the comprehensive renovation of the ruins; this was completed in 2008 with the opening of an "Archaeological Park" on the castle site.

The work was accompanied by archaeological excavations, but not always in accordance to the latest historic preservation methods.

[2] The remaining elements of the inner bailey date largely to the period around 1480, when the fortress was expanded and reinforced after a siege.

The historical entrance consisted of a late mediaeval gatehouse and a stone bridge over the deep neck ditch.

One theory is that the water supply was provided partially by the Trainmeusel Spring on the hillside to the north.

More recent excavations of the inner bailey, however, do not support this thesis by Nuremberg Castle researcher, Hellmut Kunstmann.

The subterranean parts of the ruins of the medieval and early modern castle are also a protected monument.

Because of this, militarily very unfavourable, situation, a stone watchtower was erected on the ridge above the castle site.