Douglas Castle, Gondelsheim

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Landkreis Karlsruhe

The Douglassches Schloss, or Gondelsheim Castle, stands in this village in the district of Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg. A medieval castle already occupied the site; it was ruined during the Peasants' War and again in the Thirty Years' War. After the lords of Mentzingen, the estate was bought in 1790 by the margraves of Baden. Count Ludwig Wilhelm August von Langenstein und Gondelsheim, son of Grand Duke Louis I, had the present building erected in 1857 to plans by the Freiburg architect Georg Jakob Schneider, in a Scottish-inspired Gothic Revival style. Through his sister Louise, wife of the Swedish Count Carl Israel Wilhelm Douglas, the property passed to the Douglas family; Art Nouveau wings were added in 1906. The park holds a nymph fountain installed in 2003 and a replica of Walter Schott's 'Three Dancing Girls'. Sold in 2010 by Count Axel Douglas to a Heidelberg businessman, the castle is private property.