Schloss Obenhausen

Schloss Obenhausen stands in the centre of Obenhausen, a village that belongs to the market town of Buch in Bavaria. It began as a medieval water fortress built by the Neuffen family after 1504. The present building’s core dates from the 16th century and was raised by the Paumgarten family of Augsburg. Later owners included the Fuggern who renovated it in 1571, the monastery of Roggenburg, and the monastery of Rottenbuch before the site passed to the monastery of Buxheim in 1744. The castle is a three-storey cube with two attached towers and a north-side staircase added in 1889–91. A wide moat still shows its original purpose as a water castle, crossed by a bridge guarded by two stone pillars. Above the south entrance a plaque remembers King Ludwig II’s grant of the fief, flanked by the coats of arms of Bavaria and the Moy family. Outside, an English landscape garden contains a small lake and a neoclassical obelisk dedicated to the roe deer of Obenhausen. A local legend tells of the miller who loved Elslein of Tannenhärtle while the knight Konrad von Roth lived in the castle. During the Peasants’ War the miller joined the rebels, met Konrad in battle, and killed him. He then searched for Elslein but found she had already left. The castle park and its stories remain part of the estate today.