Luisenruh Castle

Schloss Luisenruh (Louisenruh) is a two-story building with a French mansard hip roof. It is located in the municipality of Aystetten with a view of Schloss Aystetten. The castle is currently owned by the heirs of Hößlin (also Hösslin) and Voit. It is not accessible to the public, but an exterior viewing is possible.

On the meadow "Zu den drei Pappeln" near Aystetten, Sebastian Andreas Balthasar von Hößlin (1759–1845), later building director of the city of Augsburg, erected a stately summer house shortly after his marriage to Louise Freiin von Schnurbein, on June 18, 1792. Before that, there was a small wooden shelter on the property, which had rotted and collapsed. From then on, the small castle, named after the young wife of the noble builder, served as a much-loved holiday meeting point for the Hößlin family. Over the years, the lord of the castle, whose wife died five years after the wedding, laid out a small park that merged into the nearby forest. Directly next to the castle and more imposing than it, an outbuilding was erected, which the builder transformed into a veritable agricultural castle with a large portal, corner quoins, and a gable field:

The demanding architectural form was soon followed by new, sometimes daring economic experiments. In 1793, Turkish corn (maize) and Welsh seeds (buckwheat) were specially sourced from Ulm, and after 1800, Sebastian, together with his daughter Louise, engaged in silkworm breeding. However, the family knew how to exploit even more economic advantages. Since 1808, von Hößlin operated a stoneware factory in Louisenruh with a large kiln of English design (a so-called Wedgewood oven), which was expanded in 1810 to include a brickworks. The "Steinguth-Fabrique Louisenruh" is, in its division of labor structure, one of the earliest examples of industrial production in Bavaria.

The country castle experienced a social highlight at the beginning of the 19th century. Hortense de Beauharnais lived in Augsburg for five years. During this time, she visited Louisenruh several times with her son Louis Napoleon, the later Emperor Napoleon III:

In the memories of the Hößlin family, stories and anecdotes still revolve around the stays of the young Louis Napoleon: sometimes the distinguished gentleman threw an apple through a windowpane, sometimes he trembled at chilling ghost stories.

The small castle still contains much contemporary furniture, including tables, half-height display cabinets, chests of drawers, and beds.