Reimlingen Castle

Reimlingen Castle is a three-story Baroque building with a high hip roof and two round towers on the eastern and western sides. It is located in the municipality of Reimlingen in the Donau-Ries district and is surrounded by a small park and a castle wall.

The castle is closely associated with the Teutonic Order, but also with the princely house of Oettingen-Wallerstein. Emperor Charles V (HRR) already granted the building permit for the castle in 1541. However, it was ultimately not built until 1593 to 1595 under the Teutonic Order Commander Volprecht von Schwalbach as the seat of the Reimlingen-Nördlingen office. The coat of arms of the castle builder, still existing today on the western round tower, indicates the year of its completion. In 1634, it served as the seat and headquarters of the Imperial troops during the Battle of Nördlingen on the Albuch.

Between 1733 and 1736, the Teutonic Order Commander Karl Heinrich Freiherr von Homstein initiated the raising of the building by one floor. After secularization, the castle passed to the Kingdom of Bavaria. Soon after, the wealthy Wallerstein wine merchant and princely court councilor Franz-Joseph Abendantz acquired the area, which the latter sold in 1824 to Prince Ludwig zu Oettingen Wallerstein. The Prince resided in Reimlingen Castle throughout his marriage to the common French emigrant Maria Crescenzia Bourgin, which did not conform to the house law of the House of Wallerstein-Oettingen. In 1858 - five years after his wife's death - the Prince had sold it again. Over 10 more owners followed until the castle and its outbuildings came into the possession of the Congregation of the Mariannhill Missionaries in 1920. From 1985 to 1996, the Diocese of Augsburg owned the castle. In 1997, the municipality of Reimlingen bought the area and carried out fundamental interior and exterior renovations. The alliance coat of arms of Commander Lutz von Werdenfels from 1897 is still preserved at the castle portal.

Today, the "Förderverein Schloss Reimlingen e. V." (Friends of Reimlingen Castle Association) is dedicated to the preservation and use (readings, concerts, exhibitions, etc.) of the listed former Teutonic Order Castle. Parts of the building are used as the town hall of the municipality of Reimlingen.