Schloss Willmendingen

Schloss Willmendingen stands in the village of Willmendingen, near Schwerzen in the district of Waldshut. It is a large rectangular building in the late Renaissance style, built in 1609 by Johann Jakob von Beck. The village itself had been granted to him as a fief in 1607 for his services to the Landgraviate of Klettgau. The estate once included extensive lands, a brickworks, a mill, and the now vanished Schweikhof farm. A small chapel and a rear staircase tower with a sandstone spiral were part of the original design. The building changed hands several times over the centuries. In 1698 Franz Leopold Beck tried to sell the estate to St Blasien Abbey but failed. In 1801 or 1803 it passed to Prince Josef II of Schwarzenberg, then to the Grand Duchy of Baden in 1812. The community of Schwerzen bought it in 1920 for housing, later using it as a school. After standing empty for years, it was sold in 1989–90 and converted into private flats, with a pub installed in the vaulted cellar. Today the castle retains its grand rectangular form but much of its historic fabric has been removed. The entrance portal’s Beck coat of arms was taken to Karlsruhe’s art academy. The old chapel bell of 1688 was melted for a parish church. Only a large dormer window and the cellar, once used for wine storage, remain from the original layout. The surrounding farm buildings and walls have disappeared, leaving the main house standing simply in the village street.