Waldenbuch Castle

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Landkreis Böblingen

Overlooking the centre of Waldenbuch, a small town in Baden-Württemberg on the edge of the Schönbuch forest, this castle is first mentioned in 1381, shortly after the town passed to the Counts of Württemberg in 1363. Between 1562 and 1566 Duke Christoph had the old fortress converted into a hunting lodge under the direction of Aberlin Tretsch. The building was then enlarged in stages: a northern extension around 1607, a west kitchen wing in the late 17th century and a Baroque south wing designed in 1717 by Donato Giuseppe Frisoni. From 1534 to 1807 the castle was also the seat of the Waldvogt who administered the Schönbuch, and in 1812 it hosted the last great court hunt. After various uses in the 19th and 20th centuries, since the late 1980s it has housed the Museum der Alltagskultur, a branch of the Landesmuseum Württemberg devoted to everyday life.