Schloss Mergenthau

Schloss Mergenthau stands one kilometre north of Kissing in Swabia, a baroque country house built in 1713 on the Lech escarpment. It began as a medieval fortress whose ramparts still encircle the estate. The site once guarded Welf possessions near Augsburg and lay close to the Gunzenle, a legendary meeting place on the Lechfeld.

The Jesuits acquired the property in the 17th century and turned it into a working farm. Their builder, Hans Georg Mozart, completed the new house in just two years for 17,455 gulden. After the order’s suppression the estate passed through several hands before the Samm family bought it in 1828 and still runs it today. The “Hiasl-Erlebniswelt” inside the farm buildings recalls the local outlaw Matthias Klostermayr.

Visitors walk past the five-metre-high medieval walls and enter through a gate in the south-east. The main building rises on the north-east corner, its three storeys topped by a renewed hipped roof. Inside, the former chapel keeps its 1714 stucco by Matthias Lotter, while the second-floor hall shows a fresco of Christ in the House of the Rich by Vitus Felix Rigl. The east façade still carries its original 1770 carved door and small pediment once used for lifting loads.