Schloss Heiligenberg (Heiligenberg)

Heiligenberg Castle is a castle in the Renaissance style in the town of Heiligenberg in Linzgau, north of Lake Constance. It is owned by the family of Fürstenberg.

Geographical location

The castle towers visible from afar on a plateau at about 730 m above sea level. NN over Lake with views down the lake and on the underlying Alps.

History

The origin of the castle dates back to the Middle Ages. Around 1250, Count Berthold of Heiligenberg built there a castle, which was bought in 1277 by Count Hugo von Become mountain. Among the counts of mountain Heiligenberg the plant was enlarged and expanded in the late Middle Ages.

Through the marriage of Countess Anna of Werdenberg with Count Friedrich zu Fürstenberg in 1516 the castle came in 1535 to the House of Fürstenberg, in which it holds today. Friedrich decided to rebuild the castle into a Renaissance palace shortly before his death in 1559. The most significant building owner was Count Joachim (1538-1598), who extended from 1560 to 1575, the late medieval castle to a Renaissance yard and lock with one wing with the ballroom to the south. Here, the old part of the castle was covered with a Renaissance facade. The two wings on the east and west were created and connectors for now most important part of the castle, the south wing. Through these structural changes, the castle received its present appearance in the Renaissance style. The work was led by Hans Schwarz.

Inside the four- winged building was built from 1580 to 1584 the Knights' Hall, one of the most magnificent ballrooms of the late German Renaissance. The space is, along with the Knights' Hall in Weikersheim, one of the few remaining state rooms this time. The richly carved, suspended from a roof coffered ceiling was created 1580-1584 by Jörg Schwartz Berger Meßkirch. The chimney structures at the sandstone chimneys on the narrow sides with niches and pillars figures were 1584 and are believed to date from Hans Morinck.

The narrow and richly decorated chapel extends over three floors with stained glass windows from the 14th century, originally from the Dominican church in Konstanz. Also it is a gem of the German Renaissance.

After 1598 Schloss Heiligenberg was no longer used as a permanent residence. After extinction of the self-employed Heiligenberger line of the House of Fürstenberg in 1716, the castle in the following centuries was only inhabited temporarily, so from 1817 to 1822 by Princess Elisabeth zu Fürstenberg. The castle's most sided high office in the imperial service, or at the court of Augustus the Strong of Saxony. The main Herrschaftsort was at the beginning of the 18th century Donaueschingen.

In the Thirty Years' War the castle narrowly escaped destruction. If not a fuse had failed, it would have been blown up by the retreating French occupation.

Specifications

The palace complex is characterized by an over two floors extending Knights' Hall in the south wing with its intricately carved wooden ceiling and the castle chapel in the west wing, which is a memorial prince bergischer family history at the same time. Every now and then stay members of the royal family in the palace. Part of the complex can be visited on a guided tour.