Schloss Schweinspoint

Schloss Schweinspoint stands in Schweinspoint, a village that forms part of Marxheim in the Donau-Ries district of Swabia. The present four-winged building replaced an earlier structure partly destroyed during the Thirty Years’ War. In the 17th century Friedrich Ferdinand Sittig von Hacke acquired the estate and gave it his family name. His son Ludwig Anton von Hacke was born here before rising to become chief forester in the Palatinate. The family kept the property until 1849. The site became nationally important when the Order of the Barmherzigen Brüder bought it in 1860 and turned it into a hospital for the incurably ill. Over the following decades the complex was enlarged and adapted for medical care. In 1971 the Caritasverband Augsburg took over and renamed the facility Stiftung Behindertenwerk St. Johannes. Visitors today see a four-sided palace grouped around a courtyard. At its core stands a church whose oldest parts date from the late Middle Ages. Around the main building lie former farm structures now used by the care foundation. The landscaped grounds give views across the gentle Swabian countryside.