Schloss Stegen-Weiler

Schloss Stegen-Weiler stands on a gentle rise south of the Eschbach stream where it meets the Dreisam in the Black Forest foothills. The site has sheltered a noble house since at least the High Middle Ages, long before the present buildings took shape. Today the main baroque mansion houses an accounting office for Catholic parishes and private flats, while the rest of the estate belongs to Kolleg St. Sebastian, a grammar school run by the Heart-of-Jesus priests. The castle’s history is written in the names of powerful families who shaped the region. The Kagenecks, a leading Freiburg dynasty, rebuilt the fortress after the Thirty Years’ War and added the third storey in the 19th century. Their coats of arms still mark the gateways, and the chapel preserves neogothic altars they bought in Munich. After the Kagenecks left, the Heart-of-Jesus priests turned the estate into a school and refuge, first for war evacuees and later for generations of pupils. Visitors walk past the baroque manor and the medieval chapel with its steep roof and west-facing spire. Inside the chapel the walls carry worn tombstones of the Moser family who once owned the place, and a 1982 inscription honours seven centuries of patrons. Beyond the walled park lies the Brothers’ House, once a farm building, and across the road the Tantenhaus with its own Kageneck shield above the door. The whole grounds, partly wooded and partly lawned, offer quiet views over the valley towards the higher Black Forest ridges.