Waldleiningen Castle

Waldleiningen Castle is a romantic castle complex in the district of Mörschenhardt in the municipality of Mudau (a municipality belonging to the Neckar-Odenwald district in Baden-Württemberg) below the Odenwald Limes in a side valley. The castle now houses a psychosomatic clinic.

After the Princely House of Leiningen received the Principality of Leiningen in 1803 as compensation for its dominion in the Palatinate lost to France, Prince Emich Carl zu Leiningen established a large game park in a secluded valley of his new principality in the Odenwald. In memory of his lost Palatinate territories, he initially named this simple wooden structure Waldleiningen, after one of his hunting grounds there.

On the slope of the Steinichtal, a then-fashionable Gothic ruin with turrets and bay windows was built between 1808 and 1810. This complex soon fell into disrepair and was demolished by his son, Prince Karl zu Leiningen, and replaced by the current castle.

The castle was built starting in 1828, inspired by British castles, such as Abbotsford, the home of the world-famous Scottish writer Walter Scott, and completed by the Prince's successors in 1873. The master builder of the castle was the architect Karl Brenner, with court painter Sebastian Eckhardt as artistic advisor.

During World War II, the castle was used as a military hospital and later converted into a psychosomatic clinic, which is now run by the Princely House as a private enterprise.