Wolfegg Castle

The castle, which is still occupied by members of the Waldburg-Wolfegg family, is usually not accessible to the public. However once or twice a year public concerts are performed within the castle during which concert visitors can see some of the castle's inner room, in particular the Rittersaal (knights' hall). The Rittersaal is a large hall decorated in Baroque style featuring 24 life-sized wood sculptures and large ceiling mirrors. It is considered to be one of the most original room designs of the Baroque period in Germany. In addition to those rooms being used for concerts guided tours through other parts of the castle might be offered at that occasion.

The castle also hosts the Wolfegger Kabinett, a large collection of graphic art from the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance periods.

In an edition of 1,000 issues the wall map of the world by the German cartographers Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann was printed in early 16th century, where the continent and the name America appeared for the first time, originally published in April 1507. On account of the stormy development of the cartography in this epoche these specimens were fast outstripped by more detailed editions, none of them were still findable.

The whereabouts were unknown for a long time until only one of the originals was rediscovered in 1901 by the historian and cartographer Joseph Fischer in the library of the castle, the Wolfegger Kabinett. The exemplar was 8 feet (2.4 m) wide and 4.5 feet (1.4 m) high and in a very good condition. It was at first in the individual property of Johannes Schöner, who was an astronomer, geographer, and cartographer in the Free Imperial City of Nuremberg. Later the family of Waldburg-Wolfegg gathered the map and in their archives it overlasted for more than 350 years undiscerned. It remained there until 2001 when the United States Library of Congress acquired it from them for ten million dollars.