Alerheim Castle

The Alerheim castle ruin is a castle ruin on a hill, the "Schlossberg" (Castle Hill), south above the municipality of Alerheim in the Swabian district of Donau-Ries in Bavaria.

The hilltop castle was presumably built in the 12th century by the imperial ministeriales, the Lords of Alerheim, and was mentioned in 1147. In 1235, Emperor Frederick II held his rebellious son, King Henry (VII), in custody before having him imprisoned in Apulia.

Around 1300, the castle was owned by the Counts of Truhendingen, from 1306 to 1336 it was a fief of the Counts of Oettingen (Oettingen-Oettingen) and in 1363 it came to the Prince-Bishopric of Eichstätt. From 1444 to 1484, the castle was owned by the Imperial City of Nördlingen, then sold to Bavaria-Landshut, came back to the House of Oettingen (Oettingen-Wallerstein) in the mid-16th century, and was expanded into a palace.

During the Thirty Years' War, the palace was captured and destroyed by imperial troops in 1634 and was subsequently used as a quarry. Parts of the gatehouse, its curtain wall, and remnants of the moat have been preserved from the former castle complex.

In 1931, Friedrich Käufer acquired the ruin, whose heirs sold it in 1979 to Georg H. Appl, who renovated the remaining structure and supplemented the former palace complex with new buildings.