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The Renaissance garden front of Weikersheim Palace with its red roof and stepped gables behind a garden avenue and a statue

Palace

Weikersheim Palace

Weikersheim Palace was the seat of the Counts of Hohenlohe for centuries. Its Renaissance wings, begun in 1586 for Count Wolfgang II, surround an older moated castle, and inside is one of the great rooms of the German Renaissance: the Knights’ Hall, with a painted ceiling and life-size animals breaking out of its walls.

Why visit

Weikersheim was the home of a branch of the Hohenlohe family, one of the old noble houses of south-west Germany. Count Wolfgang II rebuilt the castle as a Renaissance palace from 1586, and his descendants furnished it in the Baroque style in the 18th century. Because the court later moved away, much of the palace was never modernised, and its rooms have kept their old character. Since 1967 it has belonged to the state of Baden-Württemberg.

The Knights’ Hall

The Rittersaal, or Knights’ Hall, is the reason most people come. It is a huge hall with a coffered ceiling painted with hunting and battle scenes, and around its walls are life-size stucco animals, stags, boars and other beasts, some with real antlers, that seem to burst out of the walls. A towering carved portal stands at one end. It was completed around 1603 and is one of the finest Renaissance rooms in Germany.

What to see

  • The Knights’ Hall: the painted ceiling, the animals and the great portal.
  • The princely rooms: apartments furnished in the 17th and 18th centuries, with tapestries, furniture and porcelain.
  • The courtyard: the Renaissance wings, the old keep and the fountain.
  • Alchemy: Count Wolfgang II was fascinated by alchemy, and the palace tells his story, with a small garden of alchemists’ plants.
  • The garden: one of the best-preserved Baroque gardens in Germany. See the palace garden.

Tips

  • The interior can usually be seen on guided tours. Check the current times, prices and languages on the palace’s official website before you go.
  • Allow time for the garden after your tour, and for a coffee on the market square.
  • In summer, opera and concerts are staged at the palace by the music academy based here. Check the programme.
  • Follow our one-day itinerary.
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