Schloss Hohengebraching

Schloss Hohengebraching stands in the village of Hohengebraching, part of the municipality of Pentling in the Upper Palatinate region of Bavaria. The building complex occupies the Kirchplatz and Schlossstraße, facing the parish church of Our Lady’s Assumption. It is protected as a monument and also as an archaeological site, with traces of earlier structures beneath the present buildings. The oldest parts date from the late 16th century, when the abbots of St Emmeram in Regensburg turned a country estate into a small Renaissance retreat. The site’s history is marked by changes of ownership and purpose. In 1570 Duke Albrecht of Bavaria sold the estate to Abbot Blasius Baumgartner, who built a modest schloss in 1573 for the monks’ rest. A century and a half later, in 1727, Prince-Abbot Anselm Godin added an eastern wing as a summer residence. After secularisation the building passed through private hands, including a brewer who opened a tavern here in the 19th century. In 1872 the whole property was bought by the Princes of Thurn and Taxis, and later it came into the possession of a Regensburg entrepreneur. Today the complex consists of an Old Schloss and a New Schloss. The Old Schloss, built in 1834, was once an inn and still shows its two-storey façade and side wing with cellars. The New Schloss, dating mainly from 1727 but incorporating parts from 1573 and 1670, has three storeys and a steep roof with a gable front bearing the abbey’s coat of arms. Between them lies a courtyard with a 1574 gateway, a memorial tablet of 1814 and a stone wall topped with pyramid finials from the 18th century. The former brewery, stables and granary complete the ensemble, set close to the parish church in a quiet village square.