Old Castle Neckarbischofsheim

The Old Castle (also called the Stone House) in Neckarbischofsheim in the Rhein-Neckar-Kreis in Baden-Württemberg dates back to the medieval castle of the town. The castle and later the palace were the seat of the Lords of Helmstatt. The building is owned by the municipality, which maintains a wedding room and a local history museum within it.

The castle dates back to a fortress mentioned in 1274 and is the oldest preserved building in Neckarbischofsheim. Originally, the castle and town were probably an imperial fief, but in documents from the late 13th century, they already appear as a Worms fief of the Lords of Helmstatt. The oldest castle complex likely consisted of a residential tower surrounded by a ring wall. The ring wall, in turn, was probably surrounded by water from the Rosenbach and by marshy meadows. Later, the castle was connected by a bridge to an outer bailey, also walled and surrounded by moats, with economic buildings. In 1378, Weiprecht I von Helmstatt gained sole possession of the castle and the town. His brother Raban III or he expanded the castle and built the New Stone House in place of the outer bailey, which was demolished in 1829 in favor of the New Castle.

The castle received its current form after Johann von Helmstatt acquired property in Neckarbischofsheim, including extensive shares in the castle, during the Helmstatt inheritance division of 1543. Together with his father-in-law, the Palatine Hofmeister Philipp von Helmstatt, he acquired Alexander von Helmstatt's share of the castle in 1545, and with the inner castle (the so-called Alexanderburg), another noble residence in the town.

The expansion measures of the core building of the castle began in 1546 and involved the addition of a side wing, a stair tower, and the expansion of the knight's hall with an ornate bay window. The expansion of the castle into a residence was accompanied by a simultaneous expansion of the neighboring town church of St. Salvator. The representative buildings expressed the wealth and power held by Philipp and Johann von Helmstatt. The coat of arms of Philipp von Helmstatt and the alliance coat of arms with his wife Margarethe von Neipperg can be found in many places on and in the castle. The alliance coat of arms on the stair tower with Philipp's motto "Lust tut viel" (Pleasure does much) is particularly ornate.

The castle was initially one story higher, but this fourth story burned down in 1859. The transverse wing and the economic buildings were demolished, so that today the castle consists only of the freestanding core building. The piece of wall protruding behind the stair tower is probably the oldest part of the building and likely dates back to the High Medieval residential tower. Dendrochronological investigations of various timbers in the building have yielded a dating to around 1368, so that significant parts of the 14th-century renovation are still preserved inside.

The Helmstatt family died out in the male line in 1952. The town of Neckarbischofsheim acquired the castle in 1975 and subsequently carried out extensive renovations. In 1977, historical wall paintings from the 15th and 16th centuries were uncovered in the knight's hall. A depiction of the crucifixion from around 1480 suggests that the knight's hall was temporarily used as a castle chapel. The knight's hall is now used as a wedding room, and the remaining rooms of the building house a local history museum.

On the site of the former outer bailey is the New Castle, built in the 19th century, which today houses a hotel. In the castle park, there is also a magnificent Renaissance gate from 1590, attributed to the sculptors Adam Wagner or Jakob Müller from Heilbronn.