Hemmingen Castle

Schloss Hemmingen stands in the village of Hemmingen, thirty kilometres north of Stuttgart. The complex grew over four centuries, from the 14th to the 18th, and is made up of three parts: the Old Castle, the New Building and the New Castle. The oldest part, the four-storey Old Castle, was first recorded in 1392 but may have replaced an earlier manor. In 1542 the so-called New Building was added as a storehouse with a stone basement and timber upper floors. A ring wall around the castle, the New Building and the church was completed in 1569. The castle passed in the 17th century to Johann Conrad von Varnbüler, a senior Württemberg official, after the previous lords died out. During the War of the Palatine Succession the castle was badly damaged. In 1709 a two-storey Lower Building was erected east of the Old Castle, first used as a drying oven and cider press before being turned into living quarters in 1723. A large renovation in the early 18th century added uniform windows to the Old Castle and connected it to the Lower Building by a passage over stables and coach houses. Between 1852 and 1854 Karl von Varnbüler commissioned Christian Friedrich von Leins to remodel the castle in the style of a French manor. Two towers were added on the north side, linked by a balcony, and the buildings between the Old Castle and the Lower Building were rebuilt as a single block with turrets and oriels. After the Second World War the castle served as a ladies’ foundation before being converted into the village hall in 1985. The Varnbüler family still owns the property.