Hallberg Castle

Courtyard side, left church wing with roof turret

Garden side (rear)

Today's Catholic Church in the central main building (since 1972, not contemporary)

The Hallbergsche Schloss (also: Hallberger Schloss ) is a palace complex in the Rhineland-Palatinate municipality of Fußgönheim in the Rhine-Palatinate district .

history

The castle is located on the eastern outskirts and was built between 1728 and 1731 for the Palatinate Chancellor Baron Jakob Tillmann von Hallberg from the Hallberg family . The local lord set up a complete wing in it as a church, opened it as a house of worship for the area's Catholics and founded a Catholic parish in Fußgönheim for the first time since the Reformation in 1742. For the church he had a high altar painting made by Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini , who also painted the Mannheim Palace . According to local tradition, recorded by the local pastor Stephan Lederer, Jakob Tillmann von Hallberg is shown on it as a figure; the only known representation of him. According to the local chronicle, the castle church is said to have been completed in 1741. It is today's north-west wing of the entire complex, with a roof turret. Its baroque interior has been completely preserved.

From 1788 to 1792 Heinrich Theodor von Hallberg (1725–1792), ambassador to the Electorate of Bavaria and Bavaria in Vienna, was the lord of the castle.

In 1815, the Hallbergsche Schloss was forcibly auctioned off and then changed hands several times. It was used as a shop, barn and warehouse. Among other things, the castle housed a cigar factory, a prisoner-of-war camp and a Raiffeisen magazine.

In 1972 the castle was acquired by the Catholic parish of Fußgönheim and restored at great expense. A large church room was set up there in the formerly secular middle section and some of it was furnished with baroque furnishings. This is today's Catholic Church of St. James. The historic castle church now only forms its side chapel.

The district of Ludwigshafen transferred its partial property to the Catholic parish free of charge. In 1983 and 1984 the former palace garden was restored and opened to the public.

The members of the Heimat- und Kulturförderverein participated in the renovation of the castle and set up a local museum in the building.

Hallberg Crypt

Jakob Tillmann von Hallberg died in 1744 and was buried in the garrison church in Mannheim . His wife Anna Maria Josepha, born in 1739, also rested there. von Francken (1694–1739), daughter of the Electoral Palatinate Minister Johann Bernhard von Francken . The regional historian Johann Franz Capellini von Wickenburg handed down the grave inscriptions of both spouses in the “ Thesaurus Palatinus ” . The garrison church was demolished as early as 1780, but its floor plan is visible in the pavement of today's Toulonplatz; the subterranean crypt was preserved and forgotten. It was not found again until 1979 during construction work. Here the bones of the von Hallberg couple were found and in 2003 they were transferred to a new sarcophagus in an unused crypt under the Schlosskirche Fußgönheim. From the castle courtyard you can look into the crypt through a window and a memorial plaque was placed there for the builder of the castle and his wife, who later found their final resting place here.

Gallery to the church wing with Hallberg crypt

The church wing of Fußgönheim Castle, with a visible crypt window and memorial plaque, to the left of the portal
Interior view of the church wing with old original furnishings
Interior view of the church wing, pulpit with Hallberg coat of arms
Access to the crypt from the Schlosshof Fußgönheim
Memorial plaque on the Hallberg crypt Fußgönheim
Hallberg crypt Fußgönheim, with a modern sarcophagus