Autenried Castle

The current castle is the third manor house in Autenried, which was in the hands of various lords. Nothing remains of the former castle. (former owner: Prince-Bishopric of Augsburg) Josef Anton Eusebius von der Halden acquired the manorial rights by marrying the widow of the previous owner, Philipp Friedrich von Lapière. In 1708/11, the then owner, Baron von der Halden, had the old manor house demolished. The construction costs of the castle amounted to 4508 guilders, 5 kreuzer, and 5 heller. The master builder was Johann Georg Reiner from Ichenhausen. The generous layout gives the castle a residential character.

In 1771, the property passed to the Lords von Lasser. The next owners were the von Lassberg family. In 1805, the new owners, the von Reck family, redesigned the facade in the classical style. Finally, in 1959, the Orthodox Church acquired the house.

Icon Museum

Since 1959, Autenried Castle has housed the Icon Museum of the Slavic Institute Munich. The relatively small museum collection of the 1950s was expanded in the subsequent period through generous donations, bequests, and acquisitions. This museum is unique in Germany and now houses, under the administration of the German Orthodox Church, a collection of Greek Orthodox art from the 16th century to the present day.

The museum's collection ranges from early Christianity to the present, with a focus on the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, mostly icons and objects from the Tsarist Empire and the Greek region. More than icons and applied art exhibits are shown: goldsmith work, bronze castings, embroideries and ecclesiastical vestments, wood carvings, ivory work, manuscripts, as well as a special collection of old Church Slavonic prints. In addition, there is a graphic collection of iconographic motifs comprising several thousand sheets. A dozen icons with silver overlays, so-called oklads, richly decorated with over 1,000 pearls, are also on display.

The exhibits come from the area of the former Byzantine Empire, from Russia, the Balkans, and the Christian Orient (Ethiopia, Coptic Egypt, the Palestinian area, as well as Armenia and Georgia). During regularly held special exhibitions, objects from the magazine are shown in rotation, including parchment manuscripts, graphics, and similar items.

Scientific Museum Library

The sponsor of this special library and the museum is the Slavic Institute Munich e. V. It is a reference library. Collection areas include art, cultural history, theology, and folklore of the Christian East, as well as early Church Slavonic prints.

The foundation was formed by the books of theological and art-historical content stored in Munich by the sponsoring institution, the Slavic Institute e. V. Since the museum's founding, new publications on icon literature and catalogs of icon exhibitions have been specifically acquired. Efforts have been made to complete this special collection area through the acquisition of antiquarian holdings from the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries. In the fields of art and cultural history, theology, and folklore of Orthodox countries and the Christian East, the library is adequately stocked. The latest literature in the collection area is continuously acquired; books from before 1900 are only occasionally purchased.

In addition to targeted individual acquisitions, small collections of books from the estates of private libraries, dissolved Alpine parish libraries, and antiquarian books from secularized monastery libraries, especially editions from the 16th to 19th centuries, were also acquired. Central European works form the main part here. Some volumes from the private library of King Otto of Greece (1815–1867) also found their way into the library. With a total stock of approx. 25,000 volumes, including bound journal volumes, the library possesses several manuscripts, 2 incunabula, approx. 3500 prints from the period 1500 to 1800, and approx. 4000 titles from the 19th century.

Incunabula

The incunabula are in Latin. From the 16th century, there are approx. 150 titles, predominantly in Latin. Up to 1700, there are approx. 350 titles, mainly in Latin, but also in German, French, Old Greek, and Church Slavonic. From the 18th century, the library possesses approx. 3000 titles in Latin, German, English, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian, Old Greek, and Church Slavonic. For the approx. 4000 titles from the 19th century, the languages are the same as in the 18th century, supplemented by Chinese and Sanskrit.

Prints

The prints of the 16th century are mainly of theological content or editions of the works of ancient writers. The earliest Russian book in the library, according to the printer's information, dates from the year 7063 (1555 AD). It is a Psalter with an appendix of liturgical texts. This book of Psalms is one of the earliest Church Slavonic prints in the Tsarist Empire. (The first printing press operated by Russians, by Ivan Fedorov and Peter Mstislavets in Moscow, was established in 1564. Before that, there was only one book printed by Russians, a Gospel book produced in Moscow from 1556. The few Church Slavonic works before 1564 were produced by foreigners and partly printed abroad.) It has some ornamental title vignettes in Renaissance forms. It is bound in a leather cover with Renaissance motifs, the spine of which was later renewed (in the 19th century?). From the late 16th century, mostly two-color, Gospel books for liturgical use from the printing house of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra are available.

Graphic Collection

Attached to the library is a graphic collection, which includes watercolors, drawings, woodcuts, copper engravings, etchings, lithographs, steel engravings, wood engravings, and early photographs. The main focus is on religious graphics, but also views of monasteries and churches, cities, and landscapes from Orthodox countries are present. The majority of the sheets are of Western provenance. A special collection area is depictions of saints on small devotional pictures. Copperplate engravings of religious content from the 18th century, which show iconographically rare representations in illustration, also form a special collection. Examples include the Biblia ectypa with 666 copper engravings by Christoph Weigel around 1700, and the Historiae Biblicae Veteris et Novi Testamenti with 100 scene- and detail-rich copper engravings by the Klauber brothers (Augsburg 1748).

This is a three-story hip-roofed building with a four-axis central risalit, a classical-looking gable, a steep hip roof, a facade facing east, a garden side facing west, and a front length of 19 meters. The 500-year-old "Lower Autenried Castle" was restored by the owners of the "Autenrieder" brewery in 2009 into a low-energy hotel with 26 rooms, a sauna, and a steam bath. The historical building fabric was largely preserved. The Bavarian State Foundation supported the renovation and conversion.