Haltenbergstetten Palace @museum.de

F: There’s an air of majesty about Haltenbergstetten Palace, which sits high up on Schlossberg, Castle Hill. There was a time when the exposed location highlighted the difference between the powers that be, up above the town, and the subjects on the valley floor. But that no longer applies. The palace and the surrounding buildings house apartments that are home to ordinary Niederstetten locals.

M: Haltenbergstetten Palace was originally built as a castle complex in around 1200 AD. After the castle had fallen to the noble family of Rosenberg in 1415, the dynasty rebuilt the complex to create a three-storey castle with four-wings. The work was completed in 1572. You can see the family’s coat of arms above the portal. Its last members are buried in the Protestant parish church of St. James down in the valley.

F: From the mid-17th century, under the rule of the Counts of Hatzfeld, Haltenbergstetten was transformed into a residential palace in keeping with its owners’ rank. Due to the Napoleonic conquests and the subsequent upheavals, the palace came into the possession of the Princes of Hohenlohe-Jagstberg in 1803. The family have owned it ever since.

M: In 2020, Prince Johannes of Hohenlohe-Jagstberg bequeathed the palace to his daughter, Princess Isabelle. She is the first woman to own the palace in the history of the Hohenlohe dynasty.

F: Since this is a wine-growing region, there are vast wine cellars beneath the palace. That’s because in the old days, the wine-growers delivered a tax in kind called a tithe to the palace – a tenth of their wine harvest, in fact.

M: Feel free to take a look at the beautiful inner courtyard with the half-timbered east wing.

F: Now, we'll show you a few pictures from inside the palace. Don’t go away!