Serach Castle

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Landkreis Esslingen

Serach Castle stands on the Schlößlesweg, in the residential district of Serach, on the northern heights of Esslingen am Neckar. It is not a fortress but a 19th-century country residence: the original house was built in 1820 for the district judge Karl August Georgii. In 1828 Count Alexander of Württemberg acquired the estate and had it enlarged in 1834; the new salon, decorated with ceilings painted by Julius Lettenmayer, became a meeting place for the Swabian poets, from Ludwig Uhland to Nikolaus Lenau, by way of Justinus Kerner and Gustav Schwab. Bought in 1853 by Prince Felix of Hohenlohe-Öhringen, the ensemble was completed by a guest house designed by Christian Friedrich Leins and a steward's house, two Swiss chalet-style buildings with a still classical symmetry. Burdened with debt, the prince had to sell the property in 1864. The English-style landscape park was transformed in the 20th century into an arboretum open to the public since 1962, while the residence remains private and cannot be visited.