Hohenaltheim Castle

Hohenaltheim Castle is located at the northern entrance to Hohenaltheim in the Donau-Ries district. It is the seat of the ancient noble house of Oettingen-Wallerstein.

Where the present castle stands, there was once a small moated castle. This was demolished in 1710 and had to make way for a new baroque building, which Prince Albrecht Ernst II of Oettingen-Wallerstein had built in 1710. The construction work lasted approximately 20 years. The building director from 1700 to 1712 was the engineer Wilhelm Heinrich Behringer, who probably also designed most of the plans:

As with his other building projects, Prince Albrecht Ernst II wanted to see his dreams realized as quickly as possible in Hohenaltheim, and this was – especially since money was always scarce – only possible at the expense of the quality of the building material and thus at the expense of durability. Of course, in 1711, not everything was completed by far, and so in the following twenty years until the prince's death, craftsmen were always busy somewhere supplementing, replacing, or changing things. Much has also been changed in the interior design of the castle's rooms over time, but hardly anything in their layout.

Many important personalities stayed in Hohenaltheim, including Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who applied in vain for the position of new Kapellmeister in October 1777. Other guests included: King Frederick William I of Prussia and his son Crown Prince Frederick, Margrave Karl Wilhelm Friedrich of Brandenburg-Ansbach, Duke Ludwig Rudolf of Blankenburg, etc.

Almost a third of the entire building complex is occupied by the main building. The upper floor is taken up by the hall as the representative part of the house. In addition, there are the two prince's buildings, the kitchen building, the riding hall and orangery, a chapel, and the garden hall. The entire area is surrounded by a baroque castle park:

The description from 1741 mentions two beech avenues and three avenues planted with fruitful espalier trees, of which the middle one was used for passage... When a landscape garden was laid out on adjacent land around 1800, parts of the old garden were also added to it. However, in the course of the 19th century, the regular layout was restored in the central strip.

The current state of Hohenaltheim Castle essentially still corresponds to the demands that 18th-century building theory placed on a royal residence - only on a smaller scale:

The main building, the Corps de Logis, stands with lower side buildings around a courtyard of honor, the Cour d'honneur, which serves to receive guests and must therefore be large enough for a carriage to drive in and turn comfortably. The main building stands between the courtyard of honor and the garden, and corresponding to the different functions of these two open spaces, it has two different facades. It presents its representative, strictly structured show facade to the courtyard side. In contrast, the facade facing the more private garden space is loosened up, leading further into the embroidery patterns of the flower parterres, the Parterres de Broderie.

The castle is inhabited by the princely family of Oettingen-Wallerstein. The entire area is not accessible to the public, but is clearly visible from the outside, especially during the leafless seasons.