Gondelsheim Castle

Gondelsheim Castle is a castle in Gondelsheim in the district of Karlsruhe in Baden-Württemberg.

The castle was built on the site where a castle had stood since the Middle Ages, which had been destroyed in the German Peasants' War and the Thirty Years' War. It was owned by various houses until it was bought in 1790 by the Baden margraves Friedrich (1756-1817) and Ludwig Wilhelm August, later Grand Duke Ludwig I.

Grand Duke Ludwig initially bequeathed the castle as his private property to his son Ludwig Wilhelm August, Count of Langenstein and Gondelsheim (1820–1873). After his death, it passed to his sister Luise (1825–1900), who was married to Carl Israel, Count Douglas (1824–1898). This inheritance also included Langenstein Castle in Hegau, where the German line of the Counts of Douglas still resides today.

Count Ludwig Wilhelm August von Langenstein and Gondelsheim had the current castle built in 1857. The plans for the building, constructed in Scottish Neo-Gothic style, were designed by the Freiburg architect Georg Jakob Schneider. In 1906, further wings were added in Art Nouveau style.

In 2003, a nymph fountain, financed by donors, was erected in the castle park. It is a replica of the original "Three Dancing Girls" by Walter Schott from 1903, of which only two other copies exist worldwide.

On May 21, 2010, the sale of Gondelsheim Castle from Axel Count Douglas to the Heidelberg businessman Arthur Weidenhammer and his wife Deniz Weidenhammer was notarized.