Fußberg Castle

Fußberg Castle is located in Gauting in the Würm Valley near Munich. It lies immediately north of the center of Gauting on the left bank of the Würm in a river bend.

The castle's name goes back to the knightly family of Fuß, who managed the castle in the 12th century and belonged to the class of ministerial officials under the Bavarian ruling house of Wittelsbach. Fußberg has been documented since 1342 as a fortified manor and fiefdom of the Bavarian dukes. In 1560, Fußberg became the center of a Hofmark and remained so until the secularization in 1803. In the sources, it is listed as the seat of Wittelsbach ministerials. After the imperial judge Ludwig von der Teck, the castle passed into the possession of the Munich families Püttrich, Ligsalz, Dichtl, and Weiler, until it was acquired by Andechs Monastery in 1621. The prelates of the monastery rebuilt the building, which was heavily damaged in the Thirty Years' War, in 1721 into a representative, palace-like country estate in approximately its current form. The subsequent owners after the dissolution of Andechs Monastery and its Hofmarks in 1803 were Baron von Zweibrücken, Carl Theodor von Hallberg-Broich, Count Waldbott-Bassenheim, Baron Hirsch, and Rudolf Schwanthaler. From 1893 to 1981, Fußberg Castle served as a factory owner's villa for the (now demolished) immediately adjacent Haerlin paper factory, until the municipality of Gauting acquired the castle and the park in 1981.

Originally, the castle was probably conceived as a moated castle in a river bend; until the 19th century, the complex had a defensive character. The castle received its current form as a three-story building with a hip roof in 1721 according to plans by Paul von Dießen. From 1894-1897, the castle was rebuilt again and received a park in the first half of the 19th century. Thus, it became an upscale residence in an English landscape garden.

The complex includes the main house, the carriage house in need of renovation, and the so-called Salettl. The publicly accessible park belonging to the castle complex is traversed by the Würm.