Schloss Herrngiersdorf

Schloss Herrngiersdorf stands in the village of Herrngiersdorf in Lower Bavaria. The present building dates from 1709 and houses the Schlossbrauerei, a private brewery. The brewery traces its origins to a 12th-century abbey brewery founded in 1131 by Benedictine nuns from Geisenfeld Abbey. It is recognised as one of the world’s oldest private breweries and may be the very oldest. The site once included a brewery, maltings, mill and blacksmith, some traces of which remain today. The brewery delivered 20,000 litres of beer each year to the abbey’s estates. During the Thirty Years’ War the surrounding area was devastated by Swedish troops, yet the brewery itself escaped damage. The counts of Guggemos owned the town and castle from 1654 until 1822. In 1850 the owners built a summer tavern in the fermentation and storage cellar, now known as Schlossbräukelle. The Pausinger family took over in 1899 and modernised the brewery, running it for most of the 20th century. Visitors find the 1709 brewery building set on Mühlberg, or Mill hill. The site still shows fragments of the earlier medieval complex. The summer tavern, built into the cellars, offers a place to sample the brewery’s beers. The Pausinger family continues to manage the brewery in its sixth generation. The surrounding village retains a quiet, rural character, with views across the Bavarian countryside.