Bühl Castle

Bühl Castle in the Tübingen district of Bühl is a Renaissance building from 1554. The castle was built by David vom Stain on the western edge of Bühl.

In 1628, his son, Leopold Carl vom Stain, sold his property in Bühl, including the castle, to Austria. Emperor Leopold I leased it to the Jesuit College in Rottenburg for a loan of 10,000 guilders. The order established a brewery in the castle, which operated until 1924. After the dissolution of the Jesuit order in 1773, the castle was also used as an inn but frequently changed owners. In 1807, a "real right to dance" was registered for the castle's brewery, which still exists today. After 1924, a sawmill and a chimney construction company began production on the property, which was auctioned off by Tübingen lawyers in 1980. They renovated the castle and set up condominiums.

The castle still consists of a three-story stone house with a high gabled roof. The southern narrow side is half-timbered. On the field side, two round towers, which do not protrude beyond the roof of the main house, give the castle a fortified character. The verticality is emphasized by a continuous narrow stone frieze between the floors. Already in the 16th century, the spiral staircase in the octagonal stair tower was considered particularly remarkable. There is a half-timbered bay window on the southwest corner. A remarkable detail is the stone lion masks on the northern gable wall. They were probably originally on a gatehouse. They are the model for the wooden masks of the Bühl carnival guild.

The outlines of the farmyard on the north and east sides of the castle, with elongated barns and stables, are still recognizable. Overall, this still results in a rather stately complex, comparable in many ways to the nearby castle in Hirrlingen.