Location: Swabian Alps, Baden-Württemberg Map
Constructed: 1893
Entrance Fee: 9 Euro, students 7 Euro, children (60 17) 5 Euro, children under 6 free
Open: Apr- Oct 9am- 5pm
Nov- March 10am- 4pm
Sigmaringen Castle is located in the Swabian Alps, Baden-Württemberg region of the Germany. The original medieval Sigmaringen Castle dates back to the 11th century. It served as the main residence of the Princes of Hohenzollern- Sigmaringed, the younger branch of the Hohenzollern family. However most of the structure that you see today here was constructed in 1893. Most of the towers of Sigmaringen Castle, however, belong the early medieval period. As you walk through its picturesque streets you might notice pieces of barb wire in various corners of the impressive complex. These are reminders of the time when French Vichy Regime allied with the Nazi Germany during the World War II had its headquarters here following the Allied Invasion of France in 1944. The stay was fairly brief, but the Gestapo or secret police tried to preserve their puppet government for as long as they could.
Sigmaringen is located on the southern edge of the Swabian Alb. The Prince's Palace was built below the narrow breakthrough valley of the Danube in what is now the Upper Danube Nature Park. The castle sits enthroned on an elongated limestone cliff of the Weißjura, the "Schlossberg", which narrows the Danube. The rock ridge is around 200 meters long and rises up to 35 meters above the Danube. The castle built on the free-standing rock is the largest of all Danube valley castles. The rock slopes steeply to the north and east of the Danube and provided strategic protection for a medieval castle. The castle is located at around 605 meters above sea level, the Danube at 570 meters.
In the 11th century, at the end of the Early Middle Ages, the first
castle was built on the rock that closed off the valley. It was
first mentioned in 1077 after the unsuccessful siege of Sigmaringen
Castle by Rudolf von Swabia in the war against Emperor Heinrich IV.
In 1083 the brothers Ludwig and Manegold von Sigmaringen were first
attested in Heratskirch (near Saulgau) as witnesses to a document
for the Königseggwald monastery. Ludwig von Sigmaringen was married
to Richinza von Spitzenberg, daughter of Berthold I von Zähringen.
At the end of the 11th century he built a castle on the Spitzenberg
near Kuchen. The Spitzenberg and the area belonging to it were
inherited from this Richinza. From this marriage came the four
children Mathilde von Spitzenberg, the wife of Aribo von Wertingen,
the clergyman Ulrich von Sigmaringen, Ludwig II. Von
Sigmaringen-Spitzenberg and Manegold von Sigmaringen-Spitzenberg.
The three brothers Ulrich, Ludwig and Mangold von Sigmaringen are
named in the 11th century as the founders of the Sankt Georgen
monastery in the Black Forest.
From 1133 to 1170 Rudolf von
Sigmaringen-Spitzenberg, son of Ludwig II. Von
Sigmaringen-Spitzenberg, is called Count Ludwig von
Sigmaringen-Spitzenberg-Helfenstein, son of Rudolf in 1183. As early
as 1147, Ludwig was mentioned in a document of Walters von
Dillingen, Bishop of Augsburg, together with his father Rudolf and
his brothers Ulrich II. Von Sigmaringen-Spitzenberg and Gottfried
von Spitzenberg, Bishop of Würzburg, as Lord von
Spitzenberg-Sigmaringen. Under the Counts of Helfenstein,
Sigmaringen Castle was rebuilt around 1200, or it was completely
rebuilt using a humpback square construction. Between 1209 and 1258
Count Gottfried von Sigmaringen-Helfenstein and his son Count
Gebhard von Sigmaringen-Pietengau are attested. In 1258, Count
Gebhard's cousin, Count Ulrich II. Von Helfenstein, became the owner
of Sigmaringen Castle. Count Ulrich II's daughter Agnes married
Count Ulrich I von Montfort. With that, Sigmaringen went to the
Counts of Montfort in 1272. Count Hugo V of Montfort, son of Count
Ulrich I of Montfort, sold the castle with the county, the town of
Sigmaringen, to Albrecht and Rudolf von Habsburg in 1290.
Before 1325, Duke Luipold von Habsburg pledged the castle and the
county of Sigmaringen to the Counts of Württemberg, later they owned
both. In 1399, Count Eberhard von Württemberg finally handed over
his own property, the castle and county of Sigmaringen and the
Austrian pledge of Veringen to his uncle and confidante, Count
Eberhard III. von Werdenberg (1387–1416), called zu Heiligenberg, a
fiefdom. His son, Count Johann IV von Werdenberg (1416–1465) and his
wife, Countess von Württemberg (married without Württemberg's
consent) acquired the county of Sigmaringen including the castle in
1459. As a clever move and to secure his property, he declared it as
an Austrian fief as early as the following year. Between 1460 and
1500, under the Counts of Werdenberg, the castle was rebuilt and
expanded to become Sigmaringen Castle, the expansion of which has
survived to this day.
Hugo IX of Sigmaringen (1459–1508), son
of Johann IV., died without male offspring. His sister Anna von
Werdenberg married Count Friedrich von Fürstenberg in 1516. In 1521
Christoph (1494-1534) was with his brothers Johann VI. and Felix I.
von Werdenberg enfeoffed Sigmaringen for the last time by Emperor
Charles V. Count Christoph married Johanna von Bröseln, widow of
Count Eitel Friedrich III, in 1526 after his first marriage to
Eleonore Gonzaga remained childless. from Hohenzollern. With the
exception of Christoph's daughter Anna, the wife of Friedrich II von
Fürstenberg, all of his children died very early.
According
to the Zimmerischer Chronik, before 1530, when Count Felix I and
Leonora Werdenberg (the illegitimate daughter of Hugos IX and
mistress Felix and Christoph von Werdenberg) paid too little
attention to the fire there, a fire broke out in the bathhouse
entire “Hünderhaus” expanded.
In 1534, after the death of the last male
Werdenberger, Count Friedrich von Fürstenberg laid claim to the
inheritance. However, King Ferdinand I enfeoffed Karl (1516–1576),
the son of Johanna von Bröseln's first marriage with Eitel Friedrich
III. von Hohenzollern, with the counties Sigmaringen and Veringen.
Karl I was the first Hohenzoller to rule Sigmaringen.
In 1539
there was another castle fire.
In 1540 Sigmaringen and
Veringen finally came to the House of Hohenzollern via the so-called
"Pfullendorfer Treaty". Count Karl I von Hohenzollern moved into the
castle. Karl II of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (1547–1606), son of Karl
I of Hohenzollern, was Count of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen from 1576
to 1606. Karl II was the progenitor of the Sigmaringer line since
1575. He had the castle rebuilt. Between 1576 and 1606 he had the
vaulting of the castle entrance built and ordered the new building
of the church next to the castle. In 1576, the Hohenzollern parent
company was divided into the four lines of Hohenzollern (went out in
1602), Hohenzollern-Haigerloch (went out in 1634),
Hohenzollern-Hechingen (went out in 1869) and
Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. From then until 1850, Sigmaringen was the
capital and residence of the Principality of
Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen.
Johann von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen
(1578–1638), son of Count Karl II., Was Count of
Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen from 1606 to 1623. The family was raised to
the rank of imperial prince in 1623. Charles II was thus the first
prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen from 1623 to 1638.
The
devastation of the Thirty Years' War did not stop at Sigmaringen.
The castle was occupied by the Swedes in 1632 and liberated by the
imperial family the following year. Johann himself stayed in
Bavaria, where he died in 1638, four years after his wife, at the
age of 60. Johann's son Meinrad I von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen
(1605–1681) was prince from 1638 to 1681. After the fire destroyed
the eastern part of the castle during the reconquest under General
Horn in 1633, Meinrad I had the burnt-out parts rebuilt by Michael
Beer in 1658 and 1659 and the two Werdenberg eastern buildings
connected under one roof. Maximilian (1636–1689), son of Prince
Meinrad I, was Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen from 1681 to 1689.
His son Meinrad II (1673-1715) ruled from 1689 to 1715 as prince. He
ruled Haigerloch from 1698. Joseph (1702–1769) ruled from 1715 to
1769 and in 1724 ordered the rebuilding of the stables. In addition,
he had Sigmaringen Castle modernized and rebuilt in 1736 and the
knight's hall turned into an ancestral hall. The so-called
Fürst-Josephs-Bau is a reminder of this time. His son Karl Friedrich
von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen ruled from 1769 to 1785. His son Anton
Aloys (1762–1831), who ruled from 1785 to 1831, had the so-called
fruit box converted into a five-storey cavalier building, the
so-called Wilhelmsbau, between 1815 and 1817.
Prince Karl von
Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (1785-1853), son of Anton Aloys, ruled from
1831 to 1848. In 1833, Karl convened a constituent state parliament
and proclaimed a constitutional charter as a constitution for the
principality. He founded the state hospital and had the estate
building on Leopoldsplatz in Sigmaringen built (today the seat of
the Hohenzollerische Landesbank). Charles's achievement was also the
abolition of serfdom and various basic burdens. His wife Antoinette
(1793–1847) began to redecorate the princely residence according to
French chic, starting with the furniture to the wallpaper and the
mirrors for the dining room. It gave the House of Hohenzollern
access to the European aristocracy. The future French Emperor
Napoleon III stayed as a guest of the Princess. several times in
Sigmaringen.
In the course of the German Revolution of 1848,
Karl abdicated in favor of his more liberal-minded son Karl Anton
(1848–1885). In 1857 the hospital was renamed
“Fürst-Carl-Landesspital” after him. In 1869 he became Prince of
Hohenzollern after the death of the last Prince of
Hohenzollern-Hechingen Constantine and the annexation of this area.
Karl Anton became known as the “master builder of the Hohenzollern”,
he built the castle into a meeting place for the European nobility.
To this end, in 1855 he had the walls on the upper floor removed and
the so-called Old German Hall installed. In 1864 he created the
weapons hall by redesigning the vaulted room above the southern
perimeter wall. From 1862 to 1867 the new building of the art
gallery was built as a gallery building (today a museum). In order
to do justice to the representative duties as a member of the German
aristocracy, he had the dining room redesigned into a French salon
by the Parisian architect Lambert in 1872. In 1877 he had the keep
raised, removed the Welsche hood and put on a pointed helmet. The
following year the ancestral hall was redesigned. "Castle tours"
have been offered in the castle since 1871, during which the history
of the castle and the Hohenzollern family is reproduced. Leopold von
Hohenzollern (1835–1905), whose candidacy for the throne for Spain
triggered the Franco-German War from 1870–1871, ruled from 1885 to
1905 as Prince of the House of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and
Hohenzollern.
On April 17, 1893, while the power lines were
being laid behind the paper wallpaper, solder dripped off a
smoldering fire. In the evening at 7.45 p.m., the fire brigades from
Sigmaringen, Laiz, Inzigkofen, Jungnau, Krauchenwies, Bingen,
Hitzkofen, Sigmaringendorf, Mengen, Scheer and Riedlingen rushed to
the fire. After ten hours of use, the fire was brought under
control, but the east wing was almost completely destroyed.
Between 1895 and 1908, under court building officer Johannes de Pay
(1840–1899), the royal court building officer Albert Geyer
(1846–1938) from Berlin, and from 1900 the Munich architect Emanuel
von Seidl (1860–1919), the destroyed part was rebuilt and the
library building was rebuilt erected and the Römerturm and the
Wilhelmsbau rebuilt and greatly changed in their appearance. The
concept for the extensive redesign goes back to the planning of
Albert Geyer. The building plans are kept as a deposit in the
Princely Hohenzollern House and Domain Archives in the Sigmaringen
State Archives. Francophile influences led to the installation of a
boudoir and bidets. In 1899 and 1906, other areas of the castle were
completely redesigned in the style of eclecticism. In addition,
Leopold had the so-called Portuguese Gallery built with its shell
ornamentation typical of Emanuel von Seidl. The Muschelsaal in the
Augustiner brewery in Munich, which the architect completed as the
first major work in 1897, shows the artistic approach that can be
found in the Portuguese gallery. This phase of construction only
came to an end under Leopold's son Wilhelm von Hohenzollern
(1864–1927), Prince of the House from 1905 to 1927.
In 1901,
the construction of the tower was demolished in Leopold's time. An
octagonal, pointed helmet roof made of tuff was created.
Wilhelm's son Friedrich von Hohenzollern (1891-1965) was head of the
house from 1927 to 1965. He had the carriage shed on the lower floor
of the museum expanded into an early history museum.
After
the Allied landing in France during the Second World War, Philippe
Pétain, Pierre Laval and other members of the French Vichy regime
were evacuated to Sigmaringen Castle in September 1944, which from
then on - together with the Prinzenbau - enjoyed extraterritorial
status as a French enclave until April 1945. Here the Nazis tried to
persuade Pétain to participate in a fascist government and to
appoint Jacques Doriot as head of government, but he refused and
considered himself a prisoner of war. The princely family was
forcibly evacuated by the Gestapo and interned at the Stauffenberg
family's Wilflingen Castle, which had been confiscated after the
failed assassination attempt on July 20, 1944. The French writers
Louis-Ferdinand Céline and Lucien Rebatet feared for their lives
because of their political and anti-Jewish writings and fled to
Sigmaringen together with the Vichy government. Celine's novel “D'un
château à l'autre”, 1957 (German: “From one castle to another”)
describes the end of the war and the conquest of Sigmaringen on
April 22, 1945 by troops of the 1st French Army. The confiscation by
France did not end until November 1951 and the castle was returned
to the royal family.
At the end of the 1970s - during a steel crisis -
Friedrich Wilhelm Fürst von Hohenzollern had to sell parts of the
family property in order to maintain the Laucherthal ironworks.
Since the death of his wife Margarita in 1996, Friedrich Wilhelm
Prince of Hohenzollern has been living in seclusion in the country
house of the Josefslust wildlife park between Krauchenwies and
Sigmaringen, which the son and successor Karl Friedrich Prince of
Hohenzollern had rebuilt after his father's death in 2010. Since
then, the castle has been temporarily resident again, and access to
the area has been severely restricted. The administration of the
Fürst von Hohenzollern group of companies and the museum are located
in the castle.
Since 2001, special themed tours have been
offered in addition to the existing castle tour. In 2013, the year
of the garden show in Sigmaringen, Sigmaringen Castle had more than
100,000 visitors for the first time.
There are
guided tours through the castle all year round; in its current size
and appearance, it is the result of three building eras.
The
medieval castle from the 11th to 13th centuries under the counts of
Sigmaringen-Spitzenberg and Spitzenberg-Helfenstein.
The
reconstruction and expansion of the castle under the Counts of
Werdenberg.
The expansion to the princely residence of the
princes of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen
The
former Sigmaringen Castle, which originated from the
Buckelquaderepoche around 1200, was completely incorporated into the
successor buildings. It originated on the eastern part of the ridge.
It is one of the best fortified castles of the era.
The
facility at that time, a summit castle, measured 80 × 30 meters,
with the core castle taking up 45 × 20 meters. The gently sloping
and thus endangered west side was secured by a 25 to 26 meter high
keep. It had an almost square footprint of 8.23 × 8.34 meters. The
foundation walls of the front are 3 meters thick and otherwise 2.5
meters thick. The once four-story keep tapers only slightly to 2.50
or 2 meters. The masonry had a hump square facing made of limestone
and Nagelfluh. It could be entered at a height of around eight
meters through an entrance on the courtyard side. On the left side,
in a northerly direction, next to this front tower was the castle
gate with the adjoining goalkeeper's house. The 2.28 meter wide and
3.96 meter high castle gate was built as a round arch with smooth
arch stones and a combatant capital. Today it is at the end of the
steep ramp-like gate hall. The rock plateau was also enclosed by an
inner wall. From the main residential building (Palas) at that time
with its arched friezes and the connected kitchen building to the
north of it, at the highest point to the steep drop, remains on the
outer wall have been preserved. On the south side, six meters lower
than the main castle, was a ten to twelve meter wide and also walled
forecourt. Today's weapons hall is located here. On the east side
towards the mill there is an approximately two meter wide niche
opening, probably a lower castle entrance. The six to eight meter
high and also humpback-faced outer wall forms the basis of the
castle buildings today. The keep has a north-facing opening in the
inner masonry of the first floor. This is access to a narrow secret
passage leading to the Danube, which was probably used lying or
crawling.
Mighty halls and salons with magnificent furniture, paintings and valuable porcelain give visitors an insight into the courtly splendor of the past centuries. Collections from prehistoric times are shown as well as works by Swabian painters, sculptors and blacksmiths. The weapon hall shows one of the largest private weapon collections in Europe with exhibits from the Middle Ages to the present day. The Marstallmuseum presents the princely vehicle fleet.
The weapons collection in Sigmaringen Castle, with
around 3,000 exhibits, is the largest private weapons collection in
Europe. The princely collection can be traced back to Prince Karl
Anton von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. It is thanks to his passion for
collecting, in the middle of the 18th century, that one of the most
extensive and beautiful collections of weapons is located in
Sigmaringen Castle. The exhibits in the collection show the history
and development from the 14th century to the 20th century. The rare
and valuable pieces also include all sorts of curiosities and unique
weapons, for example a German organ gun from the 15th century as the
predecessor of today's automatic fire guns, made from a tree trunk
with five small-caliber cast iron tubes inserted. In addition to 90
armor and plate armor, there are balaclavas and combat helmets from
the 15th to 17th centuries. The exhibits show the development of
striking weapons, grip weapons and a number of handguns. Cut, thrust
and firearms of any caliber round off the collection. The impressive
weapon collection is not limited to European weapons, but also
offers “exotic” items, such as Persian weapons and Japanese combat
equipment of a samurai.
Another collection of medieval
torture instruments is located in the so-called gallery building
west of the castle. The torture chamber with its rare instruments is
evidence of earlier jurisdiction.
The gallery building, which was built between 1862 and 1867 under Prince Karl Anton according to plans by Baurat Krüger from Düsseldorf, houses the Princely Museum. This goes back to Prince Karl Anton, with whom the passion for collecting in the Hohenzollern family reached its peak. He opened his art treasures to the public on October 5, 1867. The Düsseldorf painter Andreas Müller designed the room as an art gallery. The museum shows important works of art from the prince's collection, with characteristic works by Swabian masters. Here works from the fields of painting, sculpture, glass and blacksmithing tell stories from the religious life of the 15th and 16th centuries. The art museum was renovated in 2007, but is currently not open to the public.
Also in the gallery building there is the Prehistory and Early History Collection, one of the most important in Baden-Württemberg. The exhibits stored there date from the Stone Age to the Alemannic Period (10,000 BC to 700 AD), including finds from Sigmaringen's Roman past. In addition to his passion for weapons and hunting, Karl Anton was a passionate historian and archaeologist. In 1881, Roman shards and iron parts were found during the construction of water pipes on the Sigmaringen market square, these finds prompted him in the summer of 1881 to commission Hofrat F. A. von Lehner to search for a villa rustica in the “Steinäcker” estate and to research it archaeologically. In addition to finds from this estate, there are other finds from similar estates in the collections, including those from the excavation in the “Wachtelhau” area and those from the Roman estate in Laucherthal.
The so-called Marstall
building is located south-west of the castle on the hillside of the
castle hill. The building contains the Marstallmuseum, an exhibition
of the princely vehicle fleet. 17 rare carriages, wagons, sleighs
and sedan chairs are presented there, including a specially equipped
hunting carriage from 1800 and the “Gala-Berline” of Prince Karl
Anton, which he used as a state carriage in Düsseldorf. In addition,
courtly items about the royal stables, such as saddles, horseshoes
and spurs. Some of the fire pumps on display are reminiscent of the
castle fire of 1893, which raged for three days because the
connecting pieces of the surrounding fire brigades did not match and
therefore the water had to be passed up the mountain by hand from
the Danube in a chain with buckets to avoid the fire to delete.
The Marstall Museum is currently not open to the public.
The Princely Hohenzollern Court Library in
Sigmaringen is one of the largest private libraries in
Baden-Württemberg with around 200,000 volumes. It is located in the
so-called Wilhelmsbau and is characterized by high rooms with stucco
ceilings, long corridors with meter-high and -long shelves in which
valuable books are lined up. Works of art adorn the rooms. The court
library has a universal scientific character. There are focuses in
the areas of literature, art and history, especially in regional
history. In addition, other sciences are also represented. The court
library is also well stocked in the areas of forestry, heraldry
(heraldry) and genealogy, topics that play a special role in the
aristocracy. Prince Friedrich was a great lover of orchids, which is
why the court library, for example, is well sorted in this area. The
court library has a larger collection of novels and upscale
entertainment literature, which is available for loan during opening
hours. The inventory that the House of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen has
maintained since the beginning of the rule in 1535 includes valuable
old manuscripts, such as a so-called Legendarium, a collection of
legends of saints from the 12th century.
The castle archive
comprises almost two kilometers of historical documents. These
provide, for example, information about Count Johann von
Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, who became a prince in 1623, or document
what the contract of 1849 was all about, which sealed the handover
of the Hohenzollern principalities to Prussia.