Schloss Gondelsheim

Schloss Gondelsheim stands in the village of Gondelsheim in the Karlsruhe district of Baden-Württemberg. It occupies the site of a medieval castle destroyed during the Peasants’ War and again in the Thirty Years’ War. The estate passed through several noble houses before the Baden margraves Friedrich and Ludwig Wilhelm August bought it in 1790. Their descendant, Graf Ludwig Wilhelm August, commissioned the present building in 1857 from Freiburg architect Georg Jakob Schneider in a Scottish baronial style. In 1906 Jugendstil wings were added to the main block. The castle’s history is tied to the Douglas family, who inherited it through Luise, sister of Graf Ludwig Wilhelm August. Her marriage to Carl Israel, Graf Douglas, linked Gondelsheim to the Hegau branch still lived in today. A notable feature is the Nymphenbrunnen in the park, a 2003 replica of Walter Schott’s 1903 sculpture of three dancing girls, of which only four other copies exist worldwide. The fountain was paid for by public donations. Visitors walk through the landscaped park to reach the castle’s entrance. The Scottish baronial façade rises above steeply pitched roofs and tall chimneys. Inside, the Jugendstil wings contain reception rooms with period details. The park itself offers mature lime and chestnut avenues and the circular basin of the Nymphenbrunnen at its centre.