Gochsheim Castle (german: Graf-Eberstein-Schloss, or the Castle of Count Eberstein) is an old royal residence in the
Kraichtal
Kraichtal is a town in the north-eastern part of the Karlsruhe district in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It was founded in 1971 by a merger of nine smaller municipalities.
Geography
Kraichtal is a town embedded in western Kraichgau, a hilly land ...
area of
Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...
, in the north-eastern part of
Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
. It currently houses a museum and holds around 100 works of local artist
Karl Hubbuch who died in 1979.
The castle fell into the ownership of
Frederick August of Württemberg-Neuenstadt after his marriage on 9 February 1679 to Countess Albertine Sophie Esther, the last remaining member of the family of the
Counts of Eberstein (now known as Alt-Eberstein). The newlyweds had the castle renovated and used it as their residence from 1682 onwards but it was ransacked by French invaders during a campaign of the
War of the Grand Alliance
The Nine Years' War (1688–1697), often called the War of the Grand Alliance or the War of the League of Augsburg, was a conflict between Kingdom of France, France and a European coalition which mainly included the Holy Roman Empire (led by t ...
, during which
Frederick August withdrew to take up residence in
Neuenstadt.
The castle was reconstructed after the war ended in 1700, after which Gochsheim once again became a ducal residence. Frederick August died in 1716. On the death of his wife in 1728, Gochsheim returned to the main ducal line.
The upper floor now houses the world's largest collection of
irons, around 1,300 examples collected by Heinrich Sommer, as well as works by theologian, local historian and artist Dr. Carl Krieger and Margarethe Krieger.
External links
Graf-Eberstein-Schloss, Gochsheim- Town of Kraichtal
Royal residences in Baden-Württemberg
Museums in Baden-Württemberg
Local museums in Germany
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