Schloss Oberherrlingen

Schloss Oberherrlingen stands on a small rocky spur above the Kleine Lauter valley in Herrlingen, a district of Blaustein in the Alb-Donau district of Baden-Württemberg. The site began as Burg Horningen in the 11th or 12th century, a knightly stronghold held as an imperial fief. After repeated destruction in the 13th and 14th centuries, Dietrich von Bernhausen rebuilt it in 1588 as a three-storey Renaissance palace with two pointed gables. A relief in the entrance hall records the rebuilding with an inscription dated 24 April 1588 and the names of Dietrich and his wife Helena von Rietheim. The Bernhausen family made the castle their principal residence, moving from Schloss Klingenstein, and ruled over Klingenstein and Herrlingen until they were raised to Imperial Barons in 1665. In 1839 Eugen von Maucler acquired the estate and installed a notable library there. Today the castle houses a working farm, though visitors cannot enter the buildings. Above the restored complex rises the Wallfahrtskapelle Maria Hilf, built in 1708. From the car park and the nearby footpath there is a clear view of the castle’s red-and-white walls and steep roofs. The chapel crowns the hill behind the palace, its simple baroque form visible against the surrounding beech woods. The Kleine Lauter valley stretches below, lined with meadows and scattered farmsteads. The scene offers a quiet contrast to the castle’s turbulent past.