Schloss Lauterbach is a stately house in the village of Lauterbach, part of the municipality of

Bergkirchen Bergkirchen is a municipality in the district of Dachau in Bavaria in 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 ...

, Bavaria, Germany.

Location

Schloss Lauterbach stands on a moraine hill in the east of the village of Lauterbach, about west of the town of

Dachau , , commandant = List of commandants , known for = , location = Upper Bavaria, Southern Germany , built by = Germany , operated by = ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) , original use = Political prison , construction ...

north of the autobahn between

Augsburg Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the ' ...

and

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

. The main castle complex is surrounded by a moat to the south and west, almost always dry, which is scarcely visible due to the woods that have been allowed to grow.

History

The Lauterbach estate was established by the first half of the 13th century. The Dachau family made Lauterbach their seat from around 1250 to 1437. The castle then passed through marriage to Veit von Eglofstein. He and his wife sold the castle in 1449, and there were various changes of ownership in the next hundred years. In 1550 Jörg or Georg Hundt zu Lauterbach und Valkenstein took possession and restored the castle. At this time it was a tall rectangular building surrounded by a thick ring wall, with defensive towers in the four corners. The castle was damaged 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 ...

(1618–1648). By the end of the war it had been burned down. In the second half of the 17th century Johann Franz Maximilian Servatius von Hundt undertook a major restoration, depicted in engravings by

Michael Wening Michael Wening (11 July 1645 – 18 April 1718) was a Bavarian engraver who is known for his many depictions of important places in the Bavaria of his day, including cityscapes and views of stately homes, castles and monasteries. The work has gre ...

Castle

The oldest depiction of Schloss Lauterbach is in a map by

Philipp Apian Philipp Apian (14 September 1531 – 14 November 1589) was a German mathematician and medic. The son of Petrus Apianus (1495–1552), he is also known as the cartographer of Bavaria. Life He was born in Ingolstadt as Philipp Bienewitz (or Benne ...

from 1568. It is a rough drawing, but shows the remains of a fort with four corner towers. An engraving by

from around 1700 shows the castle complex with a French parterre to the east of the castle. The earlier main structure is shown, with the addition of a chapel and a wing joining it to a three-story building that no longer exists. Another engraving by Wening, also published in the 1700 ''Historico Topographica Descriptio'', shows the schloss from the northwest. The main building appears as two separate structures, and the chapel has a rounded apse. The two engravings may represent the building at a different stage of construction. A further representation from 1729 shows the castle in essentially its present form, including a hexagonal fountain depicted by Wening. A view from around 1800 no longer shows the building to the north of the courtyard, and most of an elongated southern farm building show in earlier views is now gone. The fountain in the courtyard has also been removed. Later views show no significant changes.

References

Citations Sources * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lauterbach, Schloss Castles in Bavaria