Münsingen Castle (Württemberg)

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Landkreis Reutlingen

Overlooking the old town of Münsingen in the heart of the Swabian Jura, the "Alte Schloss" is the discreet legacy of the Counts of Württemberg, who often stayed in this small town between the mid-13th and late 15th centuries. It was here, on 14 December 1482, that the Treaty of Münsingen was sealed, by which Eberhard im Bart and his cousin Eberhard the Younger ended the division of Württemberg into two counties: a founding act for the unity of the future duchy. The present castle is said to have been built around 1485 above the town of the time. Once surrounded by a wall and a moat separating it from the town, it had an annex, the Oberamtei, seat of the local administration. Later converted into a manorial granary (Fruchtkasten), the building now houses the town museum, which grew out of a collection of antiquities founded in 1912 and was completely modernised in 2009. Visitors discover the archaeology, crafts, rural culture and traditions of the Alb, centred on the memory of the famous treaty.