Castle Suresnes: An Eighteenth-Century Residence and Cultural Venue in Munich
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.3
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Germany
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Electorate of Bavaria, Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Castle
On this page6 sections
History
Castle Suresnes, also called Werneckschlößl, is a small eighteenth-century residence in Schwabing, Munich, Germany, built between 1715 and 1718. It was probably designed by Johann Baptist Gunetzrhainer, a Bavarian architect associated with courtly and church projects, for Franz von Wilhelm, secretary to Elector Maximilian II Emanuel of Bavaria. Its design was modeled on the Château de Suresnes near Paris, where von Wilhelm had spent several months with the elector during Maximilian’s political exile.
Changing ownership and nineteenth-century residents
From 1756, Castle Suresnes passed through a succession of owners. They included Johann Leopold Ignatius Freiherr Manteuffel and his wife Maria Clara, Maria Theresia Caroline Countess von Preysing-Moos, Friedrich Reichsgraf von Vieregg, Wilhelm Friedrich von Jordan, Ludovica Reichsgräfin von Kesling, appellate court assessor Franz Xaver Haslinger, and Ferdinand von Döllinger.
The small castle had been neglected since the beginning of the nineteenth century when Friedrich Wilhelm von Jordan, a Bavarian royal chamberlain and lieutenant general, acquired it in 1823. He sold it again in 1839. Mathilde von Jordan probably spent part of her youth at the property, and Joseph Stieler portrayed her in 1837 for the Gallery of Beauties, a portrait collection commissioned by King Ludwig I of Bavaria.
Carl August von Steinheil, a German physicist and inventor, moved into the castle in 1855. The German-American sculptor Elisabet Ney lived and worked there in 1869 and 1870, adding to the building’s later association with Munich’s artistic life.
Artists, revolution, and institutional use
By the end of the nineteenth century, Castle Suresnes had become a meeting place for young artists. The painter Hans Reichel established a studio apartment there in 1918 and became friends with Paul Klee, who used a studio in the castle for three months.
The building also became involved in the events of the Munich Soviet Republic, a short-lived revolutionary government established in Munich in 1919. Reichel hid the left-socialist revolutionary and writer Ernst Toller in his apartment. Toller had been there since May and was arrested early on 4 June 1919 after being denounced.
The Archdiocese of Munich and Freising acquired Castle Suresnes in 1937. It was the last workplace of the German painter Leo Samberger in the late 1940s. Since 1967, the property has served as a conference center for the Catholic Academy in Bavaria and currently houses part of the academy. Archbishop Reinhard Marx used it as his residence until renovation of the archiepiscopal palace was completed in 2012. Castle Suresnes is a protected historic monument in Schwabing and is listed under file number D-1-62-000-7428.
Remains
Castle Suresnes is a compact, two-storey building set within a park of approximately one hectare. Its garden side opens toward a French garden measuring about 20 by 40 metres, giving the surviving residence a clear relationship to its formal grounds.
Castle building
The building has a footprint of approximately 10 by 15 metres. Its front facade contains nine bays, with a central section three bays wide that rises to three storeys. On the garden side, a single-storey rotunda projects from the central section. At first-floor level, the rotunda forms a terrace, creating the principal architectural feature on that side of the castle.
Park and French garden
The castle stands in a park covering approximately one hectare. The garden side includes a French garden of about 20 by 40 metres, a formal landscaped area that forms part of the property’s surviving setting.
