Schloss Fünfstetten

Schloss Fünfstetten stands on the northern edge of the village of Fünfstetten in the Donau-Ries district of Swabia. It began as a 13th-century noble residence and later became a Franciscan convent before passing into private hands in 2014. The present three-storey main building dates from 1817, though parts of the 16th and 17th centuries survive inside the three-winged layout. The castle’s owners changed many times: the Speth von Zwiefalten family bought it around 1650, the Rehlingen family took over in 1762, and Carl Friedrich Stephan von Schönfeld was raised to Count of Otting and Fünfstetten in 1817. After mid-19th-century sales to Friedrich Adam Schwarz and Heinrich Oskar Kürzel, the Franciscan sisters acquired it in 1907 and ran a convent and care home there until 2014. Visitors enter a large park that surrounds the castle. Inside the park stands an accessible grotto offering glimpses of the planting and lawns. The three-winged building itself shows the 1817 façade while older sections recall its earlier life as a noble seat and later as a convent.