Brenz Castle is

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

castle located in the

Brenz an der Brenz Brenz an der Brenz is a borough of the village of Sontheim in the Heidenheim District of Baden-Württemberg in Germany. Brenz an der Brenz was an independent village until it merged with Sontheim. The borough has about 1100 inhabitants. Locat ...

borough of

Sontheim Sontheim (full name: Sontheim an der Brenz) is a municipality in the district of Heidenheim in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. It is located northeast of Ulm, at the southern end of the Swabian Jura. Neighboring municipalities Sonthe ...

in Heidenheim district 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 ...

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 ...

. The current castle was built in 1672 and rests on the remains of an earlier castle destroyed during the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (80 ...

. Within the castle is a small Community Heritage Museum that is open on Sundays, Holidays or by appointment and hosts several concerts throughout the year.(German) East Alb tourism website

History

During the

High Middle Ages The High Middle Ages, or High Medieval Period, was the periodization, period of European history that lasted from AD 1000 to 1300. The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and were followed by the Late Middle Ages, which ended ...

ownership of Brenz an der Brenz rested with a minor noble family who took their name from the location. Members of this family are mentioned several times in the records from this time. In the ''Galluskirche'' there is a gravestone from 1190 for Sebolt von Brenz who is listed as a Crusader. After 1250 a side line of the noble family ''von Güssenberg'' (known as Güssen) occupied Schloss Brenz. To pay debts, the family quickly fell into highway robbery and the castle was destroyed under orders of Louis IV in 1340. However the castle was partly repaired soon afterward. In 1546, during the

Schmalkaldic War The Schmalkaldic War (german: link=no, Schmalkaldischer Krieg) was the short period of violence from 1546 until 1547 between the forces of Emperor Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire (simultaneously King Charles I of Spain), commanded by the Duk ...

Charles V. stayed at the Schloss Brenz as a guest of the Güssen. The Güssen family became too poor to support the castle, and in 1613 sold the entire village and castle to the

Duchy of Württemberg The Duchy of Württemberg (german: Herzogtum Württemberg) was a duchy located in the south-western part of the Holy Roman Empire. It was a member of the Holy Roman Empire from 1495 to 1806. The dukedom's long survival for over three centuries ...

. In 1617 Duke Julius Friedrich von Württemberg took the villages of Brenz and Weiltingen under his control, founding the junior Württemberg line of Württemberg-Weiltingen. Schloss Brenz was used as a temporary home for his family. However, the damaged castle was destroyed in 1634 during the Battle of Nördlingen of the

. In 1672 Duke Friedrich Ferdinand had the castle rebuilt in a Renaissance style. The foundation of the old castle and some portions of the walls are still visible, but most of the castle was built new. After the junior Württemberg-Weiltingen line died out, Brenz returned to the main line

House of Württemberg The House of Württemberg is a German dynasty and former royal family from Württemberg. History County The House probably originated in the vicinity of the Salian dynasty. Around 1080 the ancestors of modern Württemberg, which was then called ...

. Duke Eberhard Ludwig gave the castle to his mistress

Wilhelmine von Grävenitz Christine Wilhelmine Friederike von Grävenitz (born 4 February 1684, Schwerin – d. 21 October 1744, Berlin) was a German noblewoman who was the royal mistress to Eberhard Louis, Duke of Württemberg, between 1706 and 1731. The couple married in ...

in 1721. When she fell out of favor, she was forced to leave Württemberg and all her gifts behind. Schloss Brenz remained generally empty afterward, though a branch of the family von Racknitz lived in the castle for a short while. In 1847 the community inherited the castle. It was used for by the city government and also as a school. In 1906 the oldest Community Heritage Museum in Württemberg was founded in the castle. The

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

portal in the Knights hall (German: ''Rittersaal'') was repainted in 1931 by Heinrich Eberhard.(German) Heidenheim.de
The building was renovated in 1972 and the regional Registrar as well as the community room for the local Protestant congregation were added.

Museum

The museum is described as a geological, paleontological and community heritage museum. The museum was founded in 1906 on the initiative of the inhabitants of Brenz an der Brenz. The core of the museum is the collection of notable fossils from the

Swabia Swabia ; german: Schwaben , colloquially ''Schwabenland'' or ''Ländle''; archaic English also Suabia or Svebia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany. The name is ultimately derived from the medieval Duchy of ...

n Jura from professor Hans Wagner. The community heritage section contains

earthenware Earthenware is glazed or unglazed nonvitreous pottery that has normally been fired below . Basic earthenware, often called terracotta, absorbs liquids such as water. However, earthenware can be made impervious to liquids by coating it with a ce ...

and stoneware, pewter tableware and

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuriti ...

stove tops, costumes from the lower ''Brenztal'' (Brenz River Valley) as well as rural tools.

References

External links

Schloss Brenz - City of Sontheim

{{Castles in Heidenheim Museums in Baden-Württemberg Local museums in Germany

History

Museum

See also

References

External links