Sirgenstein Castle (German: Burgrest Sirgenstein) is a ruined castle on rock, over twenty metres high, with a cave inhabited in the Stone Age, the Sirgenstein, between the town of Blaubeuren and hamlet of Schelklingen in Alb-Donau-Kreis in Baden-Württemberg.

The rock castle was probably built in the 13th century. Today its visible remains include castle walls, rusticated ashlar blocks and a neck ditch.

Sirgenstein Castle

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Erbach Castle is a patrician Renaissance castle situated on a hillside close to the ciy of Erbach an der Donau in the state of Baden Württemberg, Germany. The current owner is Baron zu Ulm-Erbach.

The origins of the castle date back to the 12th century. The task of the castle was to secure and safeguard the important crossing over the river Danube. The keep was built during the reign of the House of Hohenstaufen and explicitly mentioned in a document from 1384. The Gothic spire was added at the end of the 15th century. The original modest Romanesque castle was extended in the 16th century into a renaissance palace. In 1525 during the German Peasants' War the castle was damaged by revolting farmers of the Baltringer Haufen.

Hans von Paumgarten, a patrician from Augsburg, was enfeoffed with Erbach Castle in 1534. His heir, Hans Georg von Paumgarten, started works to rebuild the castle on a large scale in 1550: two wings alongside each other on top of large vaulted basement rooms, three storeys high with four more levels under the roofs. The works were completed in 1555, ruining Hans Georg von Paumgarten.

In 1612 Hans Ludwig of Ulm became lord of Erbach. During the Thirty Years' War Bernard of Saxe-Weimar, one of the foremost Protestant generals, resided at Erbach Castle in 1633. Following a prolonged period of occupation by Swedish troops, the castle was left in an uninhabitable state. After the Thirty Years' War a pleasure garden, non-existent today, was added to the castle. The last substantial alterations to the castle were carried out in the first half of the 18th century. In 1902 the castle was decorated in neo-baroque style.

Erbach Castle was inspired by the architectural style employed by patricians of the larger cities, evidence for which are crow-stepped gables and the gabled roofs. Entrance to the castle is via a drawbridge, followed by a gate. The castle courtyard is surrounded by mews and outbuildings. In the courtyard there is a hand-drawn water well. The Baroque castle chapel is situated at the end of the main hall.

The so-called Renaissance Room was altered in 1884 for the last time; other rooms worth mentioning are the Small Smoking room, the Maria-Theresia-Drawing room, the Brown Drawing room, the Red Drawing room and the Clerical Drawing room.

Erbach Castle is still in private hands, owned by the barons of Ulm-Erbach who also run the castle museum. Parts of the castle are used as a restaurant while the basement houses a theatre.

Erbach Castle

Dellmensingen Castle is an early Baroque castle in the Upper Swabian village of Dellmensingen, now part of the city of Erbach, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

Dellmensingen Castle is a plain and unadorned three-storey stone building, covered by a gabled roof.

For a long period of time there were two castles in Dellmensingen: the Untere Burg (Lower Castle), surrounded by a moat, mentioned in the 15th century, of which no remains are visible today as it was completely demolished in 1809, and the Obere Burg (Upper Castle). Both castles were destroyed during the Thirty Years War.

When the owner of the village of Dellmensingen, Johann Karl von Stotzingen, canon at Augsburg and Regensburg, died without there being a male successor in 1647, Ellwangen Abbey, which had seignory over the Lower Castle, attempted to expand its rights over the whole village, including the Upper Castle. This claim, however, was rejected by Emperor Ferdinand III whereupon the ownership of the Upper Castle together with its rights over the village went to Georg Heinrich von Werdenstein, an official in the service of Kempten Abbey, in 1657. Consequently, Dellmensingen became the main seat of residence for the Barons of Werdenstein. The dilapidated Lower Castle was rebuilt in Baroque style in 1685. It consisted not only of the actual castle building but also of stables, barns, bakery, a cowshed and other agricultural buildings, surrounded by castle walls. Castle Dellmensingen and its accompanying rights over the village remained in possession of the Barons of Werdenstein until 1796 when the last member of the family, Anton Christoph von Werdenstein, died without a male issue. The fiefdom of Dellmensingen returned to the Emperor.

During the German Mediatisation nuns of Söflingen Abbey, which was dissolved following its annexation by Bavaria, found temporary refuge in the castle in 1809.

After Dellmensingen had become part of the newly founded Kingdom of Württemberg, the castle was sold into private hands, first, in 1814, to two patricians from Biberach, then to a citizen from the village of Asch in 1840 and finally to Count Karl Viktor Reuttner von Weyl from Achstetten in 1851.

Between March and August 1942 Castle Dellmensingen was used as a so-called retirement home for Jews, where more than 100 elderly Jews were forced to live until their deportation to the death camps. 18 of the inhabitants died during their stay at the castle and were buried in the Jewish cemetery in Laupheim. In the autumn of 1942, the castle housed 23 families from Slovenia who were thought by the SS to be able to be Germanised. All of them returned to Slovenia in July 1945.

After the end of the Second World War the castle served as accommodation for ethnic Germans expelled from Eastern Europe and from 1947 until 1967 the charity organisation Caritas utilised the premises as an old people's home.

The then independent municipality of Dellmensingen bought the castle in 1955 from the Counts of Achstetten. In 1971, Castle Dellmensingen changed into private hands, followed by extensive interior renovation works.

The interior of the castle has been separated into a number of flats and a business centre which offers office space for small companies.



Dellmensingen Castle

Achstetten Castle is a classicist mansion in the southern German municipality of Achstetten in Upper Swabia.

Achstetten Castle is located at an elevation of about 503 m in the southern part of the municipality close to the parish church St Oswald and Agatha, the 18th-century country inn Rössle and the local town hall. The castle is situated on the edge of the valley of the river Rot to the east, and an elevated plain leading to the valley of the river Rottum to the west.

Achstetten Castle is a spacious three-storey building in classicist style with a risalit in its centre. Two wings are loosely attached to the main structure at a right angle. These two wings function as economy buildings. On three sides the castle is surrounded by a large park, which is home to an enclosure where fallow deer are kept. The main access to the castle is by a driveway measuring about 150 metres (490 ft) long. Noteworthy of the interior are a classicist staircase, 19th century furniture, an iron stove from 1798, portraits of the Freyberg family and a porcelain collection. A raised and roofed passageway on wooden pillars connects the castle to the nearby church. This passageway has a length of approximately 100 metres (330 ft). Passageways of this kind, which enabled the lord of the castle and his family to enter the church without being subject to the weather, were not uncommon; remnants of such a construction can also be seen at Großlaupheim Castle.

A castle in Achstetten was first mentioned ion 1386. In a description dating from 1449, the castle is said to be a tall building, surrounded by moats and having two bridges. The castle was looted and burnt to the ground during the German Peasants' War in 1525 by members of the local peasant army, the Baltringer Haufe. A new castle was erected in 1583 which was described in 1620 by the visiting abbot of Ochsenhausen Abbey as a splendid palace.

By around 1750 it consisted of an inner yard, surrounded by a large building which contained the stables, a derelict barn and a gate on the ground floor, the granary in the attic and living quarters in between. To the left of the gate there was a prison building and the dairy whereas on the right hand side of the gate more stables for cattle and sheep were located. In the outer yard stood the building allocated to the Vogt as well as a barn. The castle and its gardens were surrounded by a tall hedge which functioned as a living wall.

The original castle was owned by the barons of Freyberg until 1639 after which time it changed hands several times before being bought by Baron Beat Conrad Reuttner von Weyl in 1795. He had the current castle built in 1794–1796. The architect was Franz Anton Bagnato. The building works started one year before the actual contract of sale was signed. Beat Conrad Reuttner von Weyl must therefore have been quite certain of his future acquisition. During the first half of the 19th century, the pond and the moats that surrounded the previous castle were drained and turned into a park. Most recently restoration works at the castle took place in 1982 and 1983. In 1996 a fountain, which already appeared in the original plans by Bagnato, was erected in the castle yard.

Achstetten Castle and its estate are in the possession of the family Reuttner von Weyl who still reside at the castle. It is also home to the offices for the administration and the management of the estate. The castle is in private hands and not accessible to the public.