Schloss Haimhausen is a ''

Schloss ''Schloss'' (; pl. ''Schlösser''), formerly written ''Schloß'', is the German term for a building similar to a château, palace, or manor house. Related terms appear in several Germanic languages. In the Scandinavian languages, the cognate ...

'' in the

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

n town of

Haimhausen Haimhausen is a municipality located on the Amper River in the district of Dachau in Bavaria, Germany, about 20 Kilometers north of Munich. Geography Haimhausen borders directly on a marshy area called the Dachauer Moos. The landscape around Haim ...

, Germany.

History

The site has been the location of a castle since at least 1281, when it was mentioned in written sources. This first castle was however 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 ...

and not rebuilt until 1660. At that time, a

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 ...

palace was built on the site, the core of the present structure. It was rebuilt from 1747 to 1750 in a

Rococo Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...

style, and has remained largely unchanged since. During this time, the estate belonged to Count

Sigmund von Haimhausen Sigmund von Haimhausen (28 December 1708 – 16 January 1793) was a Bavarian aristocrat, mining operator, head of the Bavarian Mint and Mines commission, porcelain manufacturer and first president of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. Early yea ...

, an industrialist, politician and co-founder of the

Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities The Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities (german: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften) is an independent public institution, located in Munich. It appoints scholars whose research has contributed considerably to the increase of knowledg ...

who however died without heirs. After his death, the estate was sold to James Eduard Haniel. Descendants of Haniel still run a brewery located adjacent to the ''Schloss''. The park of the estate was transformed into an

English landscape garden The English landscape garden, also called English landscape park or simply the English garden (french: Jardin à l'anglaise, it, Giardino all'inglese, german: Englischer Landschaftsgarten, pt, Jardim inglês, es, Jardín inglés), is a sty ...

during the ownership of Haniel. In 1794 it was sold again. It remained a family home until the 1930s, when the expensive upkeep of the buildings led to its abandonment as a home. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, thousands of books from the

Bavarian State Library The Bavarian State Library (german: Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, abbreviated BSB, called ''Bibliotheca Regia Monacensis'' before 1919) in Munich is the central " Landesbibliothek", i. e. the state library of the Free State of Bavaria, the bigg ...

were housed in the palace chapel. After the war, the building has served several different purposes. It is today owned by the

Bavarian International School The Bavarian International School gAG (BIS) is an English-language International Baccalaureate-curriculum international school based in Haimhausen, a municipality in the district Dachau in Bavaria, Germany, just north of Munich. In 2016, a second ...

. The buildings are used for education and hence not open to the public.

Architecture

The appearance of the ''Schloss'' today is characterised by the reconstruction during the 18th century. The architect responsible for the rebuilding was

François de Cuvilliés François de Cuvilliés, sometimes referred to as ''the Elder'' (23 October 1695, Soignies, Hainaut14 April 1768, Munich), was a Belgian-born Bavarian decorative designer and architect. He was instrumental in bringing the Rococo style to the Witt ...

. He created the presently visible exterior and several of the interiors; during the reconstruction the house was also substantially enlarged. Among the interiors, the banqueting hall on the second floor, the so-called Golden Room and the chapel are especially noteworthy. The banqueting hall contains a ceiling painting depicting the four seasons, by

Johann Georg Bergmüller Johann Georg Bergmüller (15 April 1688 – 2 April 1762) was a German painter, particularly of frescoes, of the Baroque. Life Bergmüller was born in Türkheim near Buchloe (now in Bavaria) and received his first artistic education at his ...

, and two tile stoves from the

Nymphenburg Porcelain Manufactory The Nymphenburg Porcelain Manufactory (German: ''Porzellan Manufaktur Nymphenburg'') is located at the ''Nördliche Schloßrondell'' in one of the ''Cavalier Houses'' in front of the Nymphenburg Palace in Munich, Germany, and since its establi ...

. Bergmüller also decorated the ceiling of the Golden Room, whose other decorations were designed by Cuvilliés. The chapel was decorated by both Bergmüller and

Egid Verhelst In Unix-like systems, multiple users can be put into ''groups''. POSIX and conventional Unix file system permissions are organized into three classes, ''user'', ''group'', and ''others''. The use of groups allows additional abilities to be delega ...

and his sons. The building was restored during the 1980s and another renovation was carried out in 1997-1998.

References

External links

*{{commons category-inline, Schloss Haimhausen
Comprehensive description of the palace chapel
(in German) Castles in Bavaria Dachau (district)