Ebnet Castle

Schloss Ebnet is a baroque mansion in Ebnet, a district of Freiburg im Breisgau.

Earlier than 1113 the Abbey of Saint Peter in the Black Forest acquired property in Ebnet from Duke Berthold of Zähringen through an exchange of property. Around 1348, a knight Schnewlin von Landeck, a member of an influential family in Breisgau, is referred to as the lord of Ebnet. Ebnet came into the possession of the Barons of Sickingen, a Baden noble family, in 1568 through the marriage of Anna von Landeck, the last representative of the Schnewlin von Landeck family.

They had a manor house built in Ebnet in 1696 on the site of a moated castle and used it as a summer residence. Their city palace in Freiburg is today the seat of the Freiburg District Court. In 1804, the barons' land was transferred with the Breisgau to the Baden state, to which the Sickingen family also sold the palace in 1809. The grandson of Grand Duke Charles sold it in 1811 to the barons of Gayling von Altheim, who still live in it today.

The mansion was built from 1748 onwards by order of Baron Ferdinand Sebastian von Sickingen-Hohenburg according to a design by the architect Johann Jacob Fechter from Basel because the previous building no longer met the client's requirements. Important Baroque artists from the region were consulted for the artistic decoration, in particular Christian Wentzinger, who created the human-sized sandstone sculptures in the palace park, the originals of which are now in the Museum of City History Freiburg. The stucco work in the 14 rooms of the palace was created by Wessobrunner stucco-worker Hans Georg Gigl, the richly decorated stucco masks in the garden hall by Wentzinger.

The ceiling paintings, especially in the garden hall, are mainly allegorical, painted in 1750 by the Allgäu artist Benedikt Gambs. The ceiling of the garden hall is signed by the artist. After Gamb's death, the ceiling painting of the magnificent staircase was created by Johann Pfunner (*around 1713/16 - †1788), who came from Tyrol and lived in Freiburg.

The appearance before the remodeling is documented on the high altarpiece in the Ebnet parish church St. Hilarius. The picture was painted in 1730 by Franz Bernhard Altenburger. It shows Hilarius and the second patron saint of the church, St. Remigius, as they lower God's gifts of grace onto Ebnet, whose local view angel children unroll.

Text adapted from “Schloss Ebnet” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Ebnet Castle ranks #5,755 of 8,764 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #482 of the 618 mapped in Germany. Founded 1696, it is older than 24% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 672 atlas entries founded in the 17th century. 6 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Freiburg im Breisgau, 4 km away. See how Germany compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗