Schloss Wellenburg: A Historic Castle in Augsburg-Bergheim
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.3
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Germany
- Primary era
- Modern
- Eras represented
- Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- German, Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Castle
On this page10 sections
History
Schloss Wellenburg is a castle in Germany, in Bergheim within Augsburg, first documented in the twelfth century. Its main wing and castle chapel were built around 1513, while the complex received a major Neo-Gothic transformation, a nineteenth-century revival of medieval Gothic forms, in 1857–1858.
Medieval origins
During the centuries after its first mention, Wellenburg changed hands several times. Its lordship was divided, and the castle was repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt. The site was first explicitly described as a castle in 1463, when it was probably owned by the episcopal chamberlains of Wellenburg. St. Radegundis, later associated with the site, had formerly worked there as a cattle maid.
Matthäus Lang and the early sixteenth century
In 1507, after passing through the Augsburg patrician families Portner, Herwarth, Langenmantel, and Onsorg, Wellenburg came to Matthäus Lang. He was the son of an Augsburg patrician, a cathedral provost responsible for important administrative and ceremonial duties within a cathedral chapter, and later became Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg. Emperor Maximilian I granted him the title Edler von Wellenburg, while Pope Julius II made him a cardinal, a senior official of the Roman Catholic Church.
By 1513, Lang had built a pleasure palace at Wellenburg and made it available to the emperor. The main wing and the St. George Castle Chapel belong to this phase, establishing the early modern architectural core of the complex.
Fugger ownership and later rebuilding
The castle was offered to Anton Fugger in 1536, but the purchase was completed only in 1595 by his son Jakob III Fugger, who paid 70,000 guilders. Soon afterward, Jakob Fugger commissioned Elias Holl, the Augsburg city architect, to build a new gatehouse. Further planned alterations did not proceed after Jakob’s death.
Joseph Maria Fugger planned another new building in the 1730s, but the project resulted only in renovation work. Later Baroque renovations involved Hans Georg Mozart, the great-great-uncle of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Baroque architecture and decoration, associated with the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, favored elaborate ornament and dramatic spatial effects.
The Neo-Gothic transformation
In 1857–1858, Prince Leopold Fugger of Babenhausen commissioned a substantial rebuilding. The main wing was remodeled in the Neo-Gothic style, the east wing was rebuilt, and the stair tower was heightened. The architect is uncertain, with Georg von Stengel and Georg Gollwitzer both proposed for the work. A pointed helmet added to the stair tower during the transformation was removed in the early twentieth century.
Schloss Wellenburg remains in the ownership of Jakob Fugger’s descendants. Until 1764 it belonged to the extinct Fugger-Wellenburg line; since then it has been held by the Fugger-Babenhausen line, and members of the Fugger family continue to inhabit it. The castle is recorded as an important protected monument in Bavaria’s monument register and is not open to the public.
Remains
Schloss Wellenburg stands on a wooded spur high above the Wertach valley in Augsburg-Bergheim. Its surviving complex consists of the main wing, east wing, stair tower, gatehouse, St. George Castle Chapel, and stables. These elements combine the early sixteenth-century core with later Baroque work and the extensive Neo-Gothic rebuilding of the nineteenth century.
Main wing, east wing, and stair tower
The main wing dates in part to around 1513 and was remodeled in 1857–1858 with vertically emphasized Neo-Gothic forms. The east wing was rebuilt during the same campaign. The stair tower was raised and received a pointed helmet, which was later removed in the early twentieth century. Together, these changes define much of the complex’s present architectural character.
St. George Castle Chapel and stables
The St. George Castle Chapel occupies the ground floor of the main wing. The chapel and the stables were enlarged by Valerian Brenner, a builder from the Bregenz Forest who was based in Günzburg. Their surviving form therefore incorporates additions made after the early sixteenth-century construction of the main wing and chapel.
Gatehouse
The gatehouse was commissioned from Elias Holl by Jakob III Fugger shortly after the 1595 purchase of Wellenburg. It forms part of the later early modern development of the castle, alongside renovation work associated with the Fugger owners.
Wellenburg Avenue
Wellenburg Avenue connects Göggingen with the castle. Laid out in 1840, it extends for approximately two kilometres and contains about 350 linden trees. The avenue forms a distinct landscaped approach to the castle on its wooded elevation above the valley.
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