Hacklberg Castle

Hacklberg Castle is located in the Hacklberg district of Passau on the left bank of the Danube, about one hundred meters southwest of the Hacklberg Brewery.

In 1307, a small episcopal feudal court with a bathhouse was established here. By 1358, the building already had two towers and was the scene of a large tournament with no less than 160 participating knights. The occasion was the celebration of the marriage of Meinhard III to a daughter of Duke Albrecht II of Austria, which took place in Passau.

Plans for further expansion met with resistance from the citizens of Passau. In 1410, they agreed with Bishop Georg von Hohenlohe that Hacklberg should not receive fortifications and should remain a pure summer castle.

Bishop Wolfgang von Salm had it transformed into his "tusculum" in 1544 by Bernardino, a villa surrounded by gardens and colonnades. In 1675, Prince-Bishop Sebastian von Pötting moved the Princely Brewery here and connected it with the summer rooms.

Prince-Bishop Johann Philipp von Lamberg had the complex monumentally expanded over almost twenty years of construction, making Hacklberg Castle one of the most important summer castles in southern Germany. Grouped around the main building were an orangery, fig, plum, and pineapple houses, cavalier and servant wings, fountains, and arbor wings. The northern adjacent Fuchsloch was characterized by a four-tiered water terrace parterre with wing pavilions.

Prince-Bishop Joseph Franz Anton von Auersperg had the French garden converted into an English one after 1786. In 1796, his successor Thomas Johann von Thun und Hohenstein turned it into a large beer storage cellar. After secularization, the Bavarian administration was only interested in the brewery, from which the Hacklberg Brewery emerged. The castle wings and garden areas fell into disrepair. On May 26, 2003, the extensive restoration work on the still preserved ballroom was completed.