Kilchberg Castle

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Landkreis Tübingen

In the heart of the village of Kilchberg, now a district of Tübingen, Schloss Kilchberg preserves the imprint of a moated castle whose core dates back to the Hohenstaufen era. Its octagonal plan, very rare in German castle architecture, is often compared to that of Castel del Monte in Italy. The village appears in records in 1261, then held by the knightly Lescher family, whose coat of arms became that of the locality. The knights von Ehingen succeeded them in 1438: at the end of the 15th century, Georg von Ehingen, counsellor to Count Eberhard of Württemberg, built a late Gothic residence on the medieval foundations, keeping the octagonal moat. Wings added in the early 16th century gave the castle its present silhouette. In the 18th century, Karl Magnus Leutrum von Ertingen laid out a Baroque garden with an orangery and a lower castle. Since 1779 the estate has belonged to the von Tessin family. As a private residence it cannot be visited; only the orangery can be hired for receptions.