Höpfigheim Castle

Höpfigheim Castle is a complex built in the High Middle Ages and expanded into a castle in the 16th century, located in the Höpfigheim district of Steinheim an der Murr in the Ludwigsburg district.

The castle consists of a formerly fortified farmyard, once surrounded by a moat, of which remnants can still be found, e.g., a round tower with loopholes or the gatehouse of the forecourt built towards the north. In the forecourt is the actual square castle complex, also provided with a moat and wall. On the southern and western sides of the inner courtyard is the two-winged castle building. The east and north sides are enclosed by a wall and a battlement, and in the northeastern direction, access to the inner courtyard is found via the gatehouse.

The castle is first mentioned in a document in 1339, and again in 1344 as the property of Walter von Ebersbach, who held it as a fief from the Counts of Vaihingen. It temporarily belonged to the Lords of Mönsheim, Urach, and Bernhausen before coming into the possession of the Speth family in 1486. In 1587, the complex was sold to Duke Ludwig of Württemberg, who enfeoffed his privy councillor Melchior Jäger von Gärtringen with it. The latter had the complex profoundly altered in the 1580s and 1590s by Georg Beer, who, among other things, had built the New Lusthaus Stuttgart. During this time, the originally open loggia on the upper floor of the main house was moved into the building, and the columns were stuccoed. Furthermore, during the expansion of the castle grounds, the defensive structures were probably renewed, as both gate towers and the round tower date from the time of the reconstruction. In 1754, the castle's drawbridge was replaced by a stone bridge. In 1687, the fief was returned by the Jäger von Gärtringen to Duke Eberhard Ludwig of Württemberg and was to be expanded as a residence for Crown Prince Friedrich Ludwig. After his death, it served as the seat of the staff officer and the cameral official of the Marbach district office. In 1817, the castle was sold to the municipality of Höpfigheim, which then housed a school and town hall in the castle. During the Third Reich, the castle's gate tower was used as a club house for the local Hitler Youth. Until 1965, the main building served as a school, and until 1973 as the town hall of Höpfigheim. Today, the ground floor of the main castle building houses a bank branch, while the upper floor, like the buildings of the farmyard, is in private ownership. In 2005, for the second time after 1981, a renovation of the castle was carried out. During this, timber-framed parts damaged by water or rot were replaced, and the infill was re-bricked.