Schloss Bürgeln

Schloss Bürgeln stands on a wooded height 665 metres above sea level above the village of Obereggenen in the Markgräflerland. The hilltop site had long held a church built by the lords of Kaltenbach in the 12th century. In 1126 the monks of St Blasien founded a priory there, which became a centre for both spiritual care and estate management. The priory church and cells were rebuilt after a fire in 1267, and the buildings survived the Peasants’ War in 1525. By the mid-16th century the Reformation ended the priory’s religious role, though it remained an administrative centre. The present rococo palace was begun in 1762 under Prince-Abbot Meinrad Troger and completed in 1764 under his successor Martin Gerbert. Franz Anton Bagnato designed the two-storey main front with its central gable and an integrated chapel on the north side. The new building was intended to display Catholic prestige after the damage of the War of the Palatine Succession. In 1782 Gerbert successfully defended the monastery against Joseph II’s Josephinism, delaying its eventual secularisation. Visitors today find a symmetrical rococo façade looking west over the valley. Inside, the main rooms were lavishly refurbished in the 1920s by Richard Sichler and the architect Theodor Veil. A broad terrace and steps now lead up from the west side, and the former priory chapel remains part of the structure. The surrounding wooded hill offers long views across the Rhine plain towards the Black Forest.