Bartenau Castle

Bartenau Castle is a castle in Künzelsau in the northeast of Baden-Württemberg.

The noble family of Stein is documented in Künzelsau from the 11th century. After they died out, their relatives, such as the Lords of Künzelsau and the Lords of Bartenau, inherited the legacy of the Steins. The Künzelsaus built their castle Kunzelsawe around 1248. After the Künzelsaus died out in 1341, their residence became Bartenau Castle. When the Lords of Bartenau also died out, the Lords of Stetten inherited the castle in 1390, which they partially sold to the Archdiocese of Mainz in 1484. Through inheritance division, Bartenau Castle came into the possession of the House of Hohenlohe. In 1679, Count Johann Ludwig von Hohenlohe had Bartenau Castle demolished and a three-story castle in the late Renaissance style with four round towers built in its place. From 1873, the building served as a teacher training college, then as an educational institution, and today it houses a state-run Aufbaugymnasium with a boarding school.