Main building
The palace in 1623
The keep of the palace
The archives building
Erbach Palace is a palace in
Erbach im Odenwald
Erbach () is a town and the district seat of the Odenwaldkreis (district) in Hesse, Germany. It has a population of around 13,000.
Geography
Location
The town lies in the ''Mittelgebirge'' Odenwald at elevations between 200 and 560 m in t ...
and the seat of the Count of Erbach. It was originally built in the Middle Ages, but most of the buildings today date back to the early 18th century. The palace houses the extensive antique collection of
Franz, Count of Erbach-Erbach.
History
The oldest historical record about the building was from the 12th century. The rulers of Erbach, probably Count Gerhard I, built the first castle in the 13th century.
[Weber, ''Bilder aus der Geschichte unserer Kreisstadt Erbach'', S. 17] Between 1500 and 1530, the castle was rebuilt in the Renaissance style.
The
County of Erbach became an
Imperial state
An Imperial State or Imperial Estate ( la, Status Imperii; german: Reichsstand, plural: ') was a part of the Holy Roman Empire with representation and the right to vote in the Imperial Diet ('). Rulers of these Estates were able to exercise si ...
within the
Franconian Circle in 1532. Erbach-
Breuberg partitioned from Erbach in 1647. In 1717 Erbach was divided into Erbach-Erbach, Erbach-
Fürstenau, and Erbach-Schönberg (Schönberg near
Bensheim). 1806 the counties were
mediatised. In 1818 the counts of Erbach-Erbach inherited the
County of Wartenberg-Roth. The present Count of Erbach-Erbach is still living at Erbach Palace and his nearby Eulbach hunting lodge. The Counts of Erbach-Fürstenau are living at
Fürstenau Castle.
Literature
*
Magnus Backes: ''Hessen – Handbuch der deutschen Kunstdenkmäler''. 2. Aufl. 1982, S. 207f.
* Wolfram Becher: ''Michelstadt und Erbach – zwei romantische Städte im Odenwald''. Hermann Emig. Amorbach 1980.
* Klaus Fittschen: ''Katalog der antiken Skulpturen in Schloss Erbach'' = Archäologische Forschungen 3. Berlin 1977.
References
External links
Homepage Schloss ErbachDescription on DenkXweb.denkmalpflege-hessen.de
Castles in Hesse
Museums in Erbach im Odenwald
Historic house museums in Germany
Buildings and structures in Odenwaldkreis
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