Ottinger Schloß

Schloss Otting is a two-storey building with a corner tower standing on slightly higher ground at the edge of the village of Otting. It overlooks the Nördlinger Ries, a large meteorite crater in the Donau-Ries district of Swabia. The site once held a medieval castle built in the 11th and 12th centuries and later destroyed. In 1610 the present Schloss was erected next to the old ruins. Over the centuries several noble families owned the property: the Schenks of Stauffenberg, the Freybergs, the Westernachs, the Späth family from Zwiefalten and the Rehlings. In 1811 Freiherr Carl Friedrich Stephan von Schönfeld became owner; he was half-brother to King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria. The estate passed through different hands until 1856, when Maximilian Joseph Graf von Otting und Fünfstetten sold it to Oskar Kürzel, a Munich manufacturer. Kürzel sold it in 1899 to an insurance company. Between 1905 and 1921 the Schloss housed its own brewery. The 18th-century Schlosskapelle Mater dolorosa, now owned by the parish, was once one of the most important pilgrimage churches in northern Swabia. Heraldic gravestones inside the chapel mark the resting places of former owners. Today parts of the Schloss belong to three families; one section has been restored as a hotel and restaurant. Visitors approach the building along the village edge and see the two-storey main block with its corner tower rising above the surrounding land. The chapel stands to one side, its walls still bearing the coats of arms of past residents. Inside the hotel section, original architectural details remain alongside modern furnishings. Outside, the view stretches across the flat crater floor towards the distant Ries rim. The ruined gatehouse at the entrance shows signs of decay and is closed to the public.