Schloss Neudenau

Schloss Neudenau stands on a hill north-east of the town centre in the Heilbronn district of northern Baden-Württemberg. It began as a medieval castle built by the Lords of Dürn in the 13th century and served as the seat of a Mainz archbishop’s office from the late 14th to the early 19th century. After secularisation it passed to the Leiningen counts, who remodelled it over two generations until it took on its present shape. The city bought the castle in 1871 and turned the main building into a school, which later housed the Josefine Weihrauch Heimatmuseum. The museum traces its origins to a local teacher’s folk collection begun in the 1920s. After the school moved out in 1961, the entire complex became the museum’s home. A major restoration between 1988 and 1990 uncovered historic fittings in the old keep and linked the tower and old building to the new wing with a wooden gallery. The displays cover local and regional history, with seasonal special exhibitions in summer. Visitors walk through the castle’s three main parts: the medieval tower, the old keep now used for storage, and the former school building that forms the museum. The tower retains its 19th-century appearance after alterations by Count Clemens August. Outside, the terraced slope below the buildings shows where earlier structures once stood. The museum’s rooms display everyday objects, documents and changing exhibits that tell the story of Neudenau and its surroundings.