Schloss Wellendingen

Schloss Wellendingen stands in the village of Wellendingen in the Rottweil district of Baden-Württemberg. It began as a stone house mentioned in 1389 and was rebuilt in the 16th century after being burned down during the Landenberg Feud. The present building served as a school and town hall after 1824, and now houses the local council. A smaller lower castle nearby became an inn called Gasthaus zum Schlössle. The site’s history traces back to 1258 when local nobles held Wellendingen as vassals of the Counts of Hohenberg. The castle’s fortified walls survive only in fragments west of the main building. It is a plain rectangular three-storey structure with six windows on each long side and a steep hipped roof. Sandstone frames the windows and corners, and a small square annex with its own tented roof projects from the west side. The lower castle, now the inn, is a modest rectangular building just east of the town hall along the main street. The Pürschgerichtskarte of 1564 shows the original complex as a walled stone building with round towers and stepped gables beside the church. Visitors see a quiet administrative building set among former estate structures. The remaining wall fragments and the sandstone detailing give a sense of its medieval origins. Inside, the council chambers occupy the old upper castle, while the inn across the way preserves the character of the lower castle. The spacious former castle courtyard and square have been divided among local owners, so the surroundings feel like part of the village rather than a grand estate. The church next to the site and the inn’s sign recall centuries of local life.