Schloss Unterdeufstetten

Schloss Unterdeufstetten stands beside the Rotach stream on rising ground above the village of Unterdeufstetten in the district of Schwäbisch Hall. Built between 1599 and 1603 by Peter Drechsel II, it began as a four-wing Renaissance palace with an inner courtyard and a chapel. After 1700 the complex was largely remodelled or rebuilt, leaving only fragments of the original design. The estate covers about half a hectare and includes a small park laid out as a rectangular grove of trees. The castle belonged to the Drechsel family from 1544 until 1694, then passed through many owners before Christoph Karl Ludwig von Pfeil bought it in 1761. His daughter and her husband, Alexander von Seckendorff-Gutend, inherited the property and gave the castle its present Seckendorff name. Later owners included Carl Freiherr von Seckendorff, a royal Bavarian forest councillor, and Friedrich von Praun, a church lawyer who managed the estate in the 1920s. Visitors today see the unrenovated exterior of the castle, its walls and towers rising above the stream. The surrounding park still shows the original rectangular planting scheme. The nearby village street and the junction where the Dinkelsbühler Straße branches off frame views of the palace. Because the building remains a private home, only the outside can be admired.