Schloss Aystetten

Schloss Aystetten stands twelve kilometres northwest of Augsburg on the end of a low ridge in the village of Aystetten. The main building is a long, three-storey block under a single pitched roof, with only two old towers and fragments of wall left from the former defences. The site commands wide views over the surrounding farmland and woods. The castle has belonged to the Stetten family for six generations and carries layers of history from the 15th century onward. Fugger, Sulzer and Münch all left their mark, but the present appearance owes most to the 19th-century remodelling by Johann Paul von Stetten and the early-20th-century work by Max von Stetten and the Augsburg architect Hans Schnell. The Rocaille-style Porzellanzimmer still holds its chinoiserie panels and once housed a short-lived silk-raising enterprise. Visitors walk past the remaining towers into the courtyard and then enter the long main block. Inside, the Porzellanzimmer with its painted panels is used for concerts and private celebrations. The west side carries a terrace added by Max von Stetten, and the gables still show the original swallow-tailed crenellations restored in the 1950s. Beyond the terrace lie the remains of the gardens and the old farm buildings, giving a sense of the castle’s once larger domain.