Aystetten Castle

Aystetten Castle is located about 12 kilometers northwest of Augsburg, prominently situated at the end of a small ridge in the municipality of Aystetten in the district of Augsburg. It is a three-story, elongated, single-wing building with a gabled roof. Of the former defensive structures that surrounded the castle building, only two towers and a few walls remain.

Aystetten Castle (Eystett) was first mentioned in a document in 1428 as a fief of the Bishop of Augsburg to the Langenmantel von Radau family. Subsequently, it changed hands several times. Among the lords of the castle were the Augsburg patrician families Eggenberger and Herwarth. In 1545, the village and castle came into the possession of the Heilig Kreuz monastery, and in 1582 to Anton Fugger, who, due to high debts, sold the Aystetten estate to the Fleckheimers in 1615.

During the Thirty Years' War, the castle was almost completely destroyed. In 1693, it came into the possession of Leonhard Carl Sulzer, who rebuilt the building and, among other things, furnished it with impressive stucco ceilings. After a brief interlude by the Langenmantel family, the property passed in 1729 to Christian von Münch, who subsequently proudly called himself Münch auf Aystetten. He expanded the fortified castle to twice its size, erected farm buildings, and laid out additional gardens. Furthermore, he furnished the porcelain room, designed in the airy Rocaille style, with valuable Chinoiserie faience, which, in imaginative pictures, aims to convey something of the contemporary ideas about China. For Christian v. Münch, his love for China was coupled with sound business sense: he planted mulberry trees and began to establish silkworm breeding.

In 1858, Johann Paul von Stetten acquired the castle and the associated properties. Extensive renovation and conversion work took place in the second half of the 19th century:

Between 1908 and 1911, Max von Stetten commissioned the Augsburg architect Hans Schnell with a historicizing alteration of the gables, the construction of a terrace on the west side, and the new construction of the farm buildings. On the occasion of the restoration from 1952 to 1958, the gable battlements were reconstructed in their original swallowtail shape. In 1963, part of the old farm buildings was demolished, and a few years later, the southern castle wall.

Today, Aystetten Castle is in the sixth generation of ownership by the von Stetten family.

Since 2002, guitar days have been held at the castle, and the porcelain room, which was last extensively renovated in 1994/95, is the venue for concerts and private celebrations.