Schloss Unterschüpf

Schloss Unterschüpf stands in Unterschüpf, a village that belongs to Boxberg in the Main-Tauber district of Baden-Württemberg. It is a former moated castle built in the Renaissance style around 1610 on the site of an earlier building from 1561. The castle replaced a medieval seat of the Schenken of Schüpf, imperial ministeriales of the Staufer kings, whose family died out locally in the 13th century. The castle passed through the hands of the Johanniter order, the Rosenbergs, the Hatzfelds and the princes of Leiningen before the community of Unterschüpf bought it in 1874. Water-filled moats were filled in 1830 and the building was restored in the 1970s. Since the 1980s it has housed a school for children with speech disabilities. The castle is a two-storey square structure with three round corner towers and a small inner courtyard reached by a stair-tower. Its exterior remains largely unchanged except for the roofs and a few enlarged windows. Several loop-holes give it a fortified appearance, though it was never a military stronghold. Inside, classrooms occupy the former living quarters, while the old Rustika portal and loop-holed walls recall its past as a noble residence.