Top 20 Castles around Hardthausen am Kocher

The castle dates back to the Middle Ages and was expanded into its current form in the 15th century. It is picturesquely situated on the banks of the Jagst River and impresses with its solid stonework and historic flair. Today, it is privately owned but houses, among other things, a hotel and serves as a venue for the Jagsthausen Castle Festival, where Goethe's "Götz von Berlichingen" is performed annually on the open-air stage.

The castle dates back to the Middle Ages and was expanded into its current form in the 15th century. It is picturesquely situated on the banks of the Jagst River and impresses with its solid stonework and historic flair. Today, it is privately owned but houses, among other things, a hotel and serves as a venue for the Jagsthausen Castle Festival, where Goethe's "Götz von Berlichingen" is performed annually on the open-air stage.

In 1553, Pfedelbach fell to Count Eberhard, founder of the main Hohenlohe-Waldenburg line. Due to Pfedelbach's mild climate, he planned to build a second residence here as a winter residence in addition to his Waldenburg main residence. Between 1568 and 1572, he commissioned the Heilbronn master builder Sebastian Mayer to build a square moated castle with a square courtyard in the Renaissance style in place of the old moated castle. When Eberhard died in 1570 from the injuries he sustained during the "Waldenburg Carnival," his widow, Agathe, Countess of Tübingen, devoted herself to completing the castle and designated it as her widow's residence. With Ludwig Gottfried, the Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Pfedelbach line became extinct in 1728, and the property passed to the Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Bartenstein line. The planned extensive Baroque renovation of the building was only partially realized with the new construction of Bartenstein Castle. The magnificent court chapel was built between 1731 and 1732 under Count Ferdinand of Hohenlohe-Bartenstein. After the mediatization, the Württemberg district court was located in Pfedelbach Castle from 1806 to 1840. After the Second World War, the castle served as a poorhouse and fell into rapid disrepair until the municipality acquired the dilapidated building from Princess Clara of Hohenlohe-Bartenstein in 1962 and undertook a comprehensive renovation.

The current complex, consisting of the two-winged core building, was built by the von Berlichingen family in the 15th and 16th centuries. Götzenburg was the birthplace of the "Knight with the Iron Hand", Götz von Berlichingen was born here in 1480. The designs of the Ulm Minster master builder August von Beyer led to the largest remodeling of the castle between 1876 and 1878, during which the south wing and the gate tower were built and the park around the complex was laid out.

The pretty Pfedelbach Castle dominates the townscape. You can cycle right past it. The best way to stop off is to have an ice cream or coffee from the bakery right next door.

Beautiful castle, which is also used as a hotel.

The beautiful castle 🏰 in the town center lured me to Pferdelbach, very worth seeing because something was done there to preserve the cultural monuments, I was very happy about this, thanks Pferdelbach.

The Götz quote – the “Swabian greeting” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe created a literary monument to him in the third act of his play Götz von Berlichingen, which was published in 1773 and premiered in 1774, with the “Götz quote”: “But tell him, he can kiss my ass!” So Götz von Berlichingen certainly did not want to “greet” the emperor when he exclaimed: “But tell him, he can kiss my ass!” – he simply wanted to be left alone by the emperor.