Schloss Hurlach

Schloss Hurlach stands in the village of Hurlach in the Landsberg am Lech district. It is a five-storey rectangular building topped with a pitched roof, four corner towers, an octagonal domed oriel and stepped gables in the Renaissance style. The structure, clearly visible across the Lechfeld, sits 150 metres south of St Laurentius parish church and remains almost unchanged since it was built. The Fugger family acquired the estate in 1607–08 and Markus Fugger, Landsberg’s overseer, had the main castle built around 1610. Over the centuries the property passed through several noble families including Langenmantel, Pemler, Donnersberg, Karwinsky, Leyen, Horlacher and Schnurbein. Otto von Schnurbein bought it in 1898 and commissioned Jean Keller to restore the building, while Hans Schnell’s additions of 1904–06 gave it its present appearance, including the battlemented dovecote above the gateway. Today the Schloss belongs to Jugend mit einer Mission and serves as a training and education centre. The SOS-Kinderdorf association ran a youth psychiatric unit here from 1965 until 1972. The entrance arch bears the von Schnurbein coat of arms, and beneath the building lie remains of an early-modern garden and the former chapel.