Schloss Harmating

Schloss Harmating stands on a moraine hill above the Isar valley in the small hamlet of the same name, part of the Egling municipality in Upper Bavaria. Its oldest parts date from the 13th century, though the main Renaissance structure we see today was shaped in the 16th. The building survives largely intact, both inside and out, and is officially recognised as a monument of special importance. The castle has passed through many notable hands: the lords of Harmating, the counts of Hohenwaldeck, the Egling and Ross families, and the T¨anzl von Tratzberg from Tyrol. In 1531 it came to the Barth family of Munich patricians, who gained noble privileges in 1596 and were raised to barons in 1681. The explorer Hermann von Barth, famed for his Alpine research, spent his childhood here. Since 1941 the von Schirnding family has owned the house, and today the writer Albert von Schirnding lives there with his family. The three-storey rectangular building wears a steep, shingled hip roof and an attached chapel on its east side. Renaissance doorways, furniture and tiled stoves remain in place. The first floor holds a large room with a 19th-century coffered ceiling adorned with medallions bearing the names of every Barth from 1324 to 1758. Portraits of the family hang in the Eurasburger room, recalling the Barths’ later ties to Eurasburg castle. The chancellor’s room displays ceiling paintings possibly by Melchior Steidl, while the oriel window carries frescoes of the Barth and Ligsalz coats of arms. Hunting trophies and a library of more than fifteen thousand books recall its past as a hunting seat.