Leonberg Castle

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View of the castle from the southwest
The bitter orange garden in front of the south front of the castle
Detail: the eastern half of the bitter orange garden

The Leonberg castle was part of the fortification of the city Leonberg in Baden-Wuerttemberg . It was later used as the widow's residence of the Duchesses of Württemberg and is now home to the tax office.

history

The castle was built under Count Ulrich I of Württemberg (1226–1265). The city of Leonberg, founded around 1248/49, received a castle complex on its southwest corner as part of the city fortifications. At the instigation of Duke Christoph (1515–1568), this castle was converted into a palace from 1560 to 1570 according to the plans of the Württemberg builder Aberlin Tretsch . The three-part row of buildings, which still exists today, was created from the three-storey palace and residential building in the middle, a stables to the east and the fruit box in the west. Duke Christoph used the castle mainly as a hunting lodge. Originally, the courtyard was closed by farm buildings on the other sides. The facade was only designed to be representative on this courtyard side. The side facing the Glemstal remained unadorned.

The widow of Frederick I of Württemberg, Duchess Sibylla von Anhalt -Zerbst-Bernburg (1564–1614), used the castle from 1609 as a widow's seat. To this end, she had Heinrich Schickhardt transform it into a representative residence. Above all on the south side, he created a Söller supported by four arcades , which lay on the city wall that still runs there today and which could be entered from the Duchess's room. From here one could see directly onto the bitter orange garden, also newly laid out by Schickhardt , a pleasure garden in the style of the Italian Renaissance . An alliance coat of arms of Anhalt-Zerbst and Württemberg on the half-timbered bay on the courtyard side still reminds of their stay today.

The castle was also used as a residence several times later. From 1634 to 1638 Count Matthias Gallas (1584–1647) resided with his imperial troops after the victory in the Battle of Nördlingen in Leonberg Castle. Anna Sabina of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg (1593–1659) used the castle as a widow's residence after the death of her husband, the Württemberg duchy administrator Julius Friedrich von Württemberg , a son of the Duchess Sibylla. Here she died in 1659.

Magdalena Sibylla von Hessen-Darmstadt (1652–1712) lived in Leonberg Castle for her son, Duke Eberhard Ludwig , from 1678 in addition to the Stetten and Stuttgart castles during her reign . In 1765, Duke Carl Eugen tried in vain to sell the castle to the city of Leonberg. The building was then used as an official residence from the late 18th century.

From 1796 to 1801 Friedrich Schiller's mother , Elisabeth Dorothea Schiller (née Kodweiß, 1732–1802) was assigned an apartment in Leonberg Castle. She lived there with her still unserved fourth daughter Louise (1766-1836) and received a pension of one hundred guilders, half in cash and half in kind.

The small farm buildings and outbuildings that once bounded the castle courtyard to the north had to give way to a parking lot. The tax office and the district court of Leonberg are now located in the castle .

literature

  • Katharina and Nikola Hild: Leonberg Castle - widow's residence with terrace garden . In: Castles in the Stuttgart Region . 2009, ISBN 978-3-87407-818-4 , p. 138 ff.

Web links

Commons : Schloss Leonberg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 48 ° 48 ′ 4.5 "  N , 9 ° 0 ′ 44.2"  E