Schloss Gondelsheim is a castle in the municipality of Gondelsheim in
the Baden-Württemberg district of Karlsruhe.
The castle was built on the site where a castle had stood since the
Middle Ages , which had been destroyed during the Peasant War and the
Thirty Years' War . It was owned by various houses, from the late 17th
century to the late 18th century, of the Lords of Mentzingen , until it
was bought in 1790 by the Baden margraves Friedrich (1756-1817) and
Ludwig Wilhelm August , who later became the Grand Duke Ludwig I.
Grand Duke Ludwig I initially bequeathed the castle as his private
property to his son Ludwig Wilhelm August, count of Langenstein and
Gondelsheim (1820-1873). After his death, it passed to his sister Luise
(1825-1900), who was married to Carl Israel, Count Douglas (1824-1898).
This legacy also included Langenstein Castle
in Hegau, where the German line of the Counts of Douglas still lives
today.
Count Ludwig Wilhelm August von Langenstein and Gondelsheim had today's
castle built in 1857. The architect Georg Jakob Schneider from Freiburg
designed the plans for the Scottish-Gothic Revival style building. In
1906, further Art Nouveau wings were added.
The count, a member of the Reichstag, died on April 22, 1908. At the end
of 1908 his remains were transferred to a
mausoleum built by the widow
Countess Valesca Douglas Schweikhardt, which is located northeast of the
forest.
In 2003, a donation-financed nymph fountain was built in the palace
park, which is a replica of the original "Three dancing girls" by Walter
Schott in 1903 and of which there are only four other copies worldwide.
On May 21, 2010, the sale of the Gondelsheim Castle by Axel Graf Douglas
to a Heidelberg businessman was notarized.
Above the castle park and the church is the Old Tower , the oldest
building in Gondelsheim.
See also:
• The Douglas family in Germany
• Douglas Palais
•
Bookplate for Graf
Hugo Sholto Georg von Douglas
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