Schöckingen Castle

Schöckingen Castle is a castle complex in the Ditzingen district of Schöckingen in the Baden-Württemberg district of Ludwigsburg, about 20 kilometers northwest of Stuttgart.

Consisting of buildings from the 15th to 18th centuries, erected by the Barons von Gaisberg-Schöckingen, the complex is now privately owned and generally cannot be visited. However, it is occasionally accessible to the public as an event venue and congress center.

The castle-like complex is located in the historic center of Schöckingen and occupies a plot of land of approximately 20,000 m². It consists of the so-called New Castle, a multi-part building ensemble on the northeastern side of Schöckinger Schlossstraße, and a nearby building called Hinteres Schloss, which stands on the southwestern side of Schillerstraße. To the north and east of the New Castle is an extensive landscape park with small ponds and a water fountain.

The building ensemble encloses a polygonal inner courtyard and is still partly surrounded by moats. Access to the courtyard is provided by the three-story gatehouse with upper floors made of half-timbering, which are topped by a hipped gable roof. Dating from the 15th century, it belongs to the oldest building fabric of the complex. Its pointed arch gate passage dates from the late Gothic period and is dated to the year 1430. Stone tablets attached to the building show the coats of arms of Hans von Nippenburg, called Schlegel, and his wife Margarete von Heimerdingen.

To the southwest of the gatehouse is the main house of the castle with building fabric from the 16th century. The three-story half-timbered building rises on a rectangular floor plan and is plastered white. Its tiled, red hipped roof is crowned by two weather vanes. At the northwestern corner, the house has a small five-sided extension standing on a high plinth with a flat hood. On the plinth is the alliance coat of arms of Friedrich von Gaisberg-Schöckingen and his wife Ottilie von und zu der Tann-Rathsamhausen.

The eastern side of the inner courtyard is bordered by former farm buildings. The elongated east building has two remarkable gables. The northeastern one is decorated with tracery reliefs, while the southwestern volute gable from the Renaissance period features pilasters as decorative elements. To the northwest of the building is the so-called Hintere Kelter from 1763.

Between the main house and the farm buildings is the Maierhaus, a freestanding, plastered half-timbered building with two stories.