Wald Castle

At the beginning of the 13th century, Wald Castle, later a palace, was built. The property encompassed the area of the Wald lordship (Pflegamt), which, in addition to Garching, located across the Alz, included the present-day municipalities of Feichten, Kirchweidach, Halsbach, and parts of Burgkirchen. The castle marked a Salzburg border post to Bavaria. After the extinction of the Lords of Wald at the beginning of the 14th century, Garching and the Wald lordship became Bavarian. The Lords of Wald belonged to the leading Salzburg-Bavarian ministerial class but were not eligible for tournaments. They held high offices as caretakers in Reichenhall, judges in Trostberg, or vice-domes of Lower Bavaria.

From 1508, the Lords von der Leiter, descendants of the Upper Italian "della Scala," resided at Wald Palace. Between 1602 and 1736, the lordship was owned by the Counts of Wartenberg. Duke Ferdinand of Bavaria, the uncle of the later Elector Maximilian I, had married the young and exceedingly beautiful Maria Pettenbeck, the daughter of a rent clerk from Haag. The "half-" Wittelsbachers descended from this collateral line, as (titular) Counts of Wartenberg (near Erding, seat of the Wittelsbachers at the time of the enfeoffment with the Bavarian ducal dignity in 1180), would have been entitled to inherit after the extinction of the Old Bavarian line – even before the Palatinate and Zweibrücken lines. Unfortunately, in 1730, the young Count of Wartenberg tragically choked on a peach pit at the Ettal Knight Academy. The Wald lordship then became a cabinet lordship and was granted by the Elector to various nobles, including the Fuggers. The independent administration of the Wald lordship, at times even with high justice – a "gallows column" preserved – existed until 1803.

Description

Wald is a spur castle, separated from the high bank of the Alz in the southeast by a wide neck ditch. The original complex presumably had four corner towers around an almost square inner courtyard. To the left of the gate is a rectangular defensive tower, with the gatehouse and a small gate barbican attached. To the right of the gatehouse is the chapel building, with an extension from 1838 at a right angle to it, facing northeast. The northwest corner tower and the rear building were demolished after 1806.