Schloss Wolfegg is a

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

castle next to the town of

Wolfegg Wolfegg is a municipality in the district of Ravensburg in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. Overview It is the site of Wolfegg Castle, the home of the Princes of Waldburg-Wolfegg, longtime owners of the only known copy of the Waldseemüller map. ...

Upper Swabia Upper Swabia ( or ) is a region in Germany in the federal states of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria.''Brockhaus Enzyklopädie.'' 19. Auflage. Band 16, 1991, p. 72. The name refers to the area between the Swabian Jura, Lake Con ...

(Germany). The castle is the ancestral seat of the family of

Waldburg-Wolfegg Waldburg-Wolfegg was a County ruled by the House of Waldburg, located in southeastern Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Waldburg-Wolfegg was a partition of Waldburg-Wolfegg-Zeil and was repartitioned in 1667, creating Waldburg-Waldsee Waldburg-Wald ...

, which still owns it today.

Building

The main building of the castle consists of four wings arranged in the shape of a rectangle with towers in the corners. Its exterior design and layout dates back to

Truchsess The word ''seneschal'' () can have several different meanings, all of which reflect certain types of supervising or administering in a historic context. Most commonly, a seneschal was a senior position filled by a court appointment within a royal, ...

Jakob II. of Waldburg (1546–1589) and his wife Johanna (1548–1613). After a fire in 1578 destroyed an older building, they built a new castle. Parts of it however were destroyed in 1646, when Swedish troops under

Carl Gustaf Wrangel ''Fältmarskalk'' Carl Gustaf Wrangel (also Carl Gustav von Wrangel; 23 December 1613 – 5 July 1676) was a Swedish statesman and military commander who commanded the Swedish forces in the Thirty Years' War, as well as the Torstenson, Bremen, ...

ransacked the place near the end of the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine ...

and laid fire to it. Since the owner Maximilian Willibald of Waldburg-Wolfegg was short of funds, the restoration of the castle was delayed until 1651. From 1691 to 1700 the sculptor and

plasterer A plasterer is a tradesman who works with plaster, such as forming a layer of plaster on an interior wall or plaster decorative moldings on ceilings or walls. The process of creating plasterwork, called plastering, has been used in buildin ...

Balthasar Kimmer of Wangen (1653–1702) redesigned the interior of the rooms with official and representative functions. In the 18th century some of the guest rooms were decorated in

Rococo Rococo, less commonly Roccoco ( , ; or ), also known as Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and dramatic style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpte ...

style. Towards the end of the 19th century the castle was extensively renovated again. The dining rooms received a new interior design and the castle's chapel was remodeled in a

Neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half of the 19th century ...

fashion.

Use

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 The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

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. In May 2016 the Denkmalstiftung Baden-Württemberg, a foundation for the preservation of historical monuments in

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

, designated the Rittersaal as the historic monument of the month. The castle also hosts the Wolfegger Kabinett, a large collection of graphic art from the late

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

and the

periods.

Discovery of the map that named America

In April 1507 an edition of 1,000 copies of the wall map of the world by the German cartographers

Martin Waldseemüller Martin Waldseemüller ( – 16 March 1520) was a German cartographer and humanist scholar. Sometimes known by the Hellenized form of his name, Hylacomylus, his work was influential among contemporary cartographers. His collaborator Matthias Ring ...

and

Matthias Ringmann Matthias Ringmann (1482–1511), also known as Philesius Vogesigena, was an Alsatian German Humanism, humanist scholar and cosmography, cosmographer. Along with cartographer Martin Waldseemüller, he is credited with the first documented usage of ...

was printed, on which the

continent A continent is any of several large geographical regions. Continents are generally identified by convention (norm), convention rather than any strict criteria. A continent could be a single large landmass, a part of a very large landmass, as ...

and the name ''

America The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

'' appeared for the first time. On account of the rapid development of

cartography Cartography (; from , 'papyrus, sheet of paper, map'; and , 'write') is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an imagined reality) can ...

in this epoch these were fast superseded by more detailed editions, so that this edition quickly fell out of use and all issues were lost over time. Their fate and whereabouts were unknown until 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 wide and high and in very good condition. It was originally the property of

Johannes Schöner Johannes Schöner (16 January 1477, in Karlstadt am Main – 16 January 1547, in the Free Imperial City of Nuremberg) (aka, Johann Schönner, Johann Schoener, Jean Schönner, Joan Schoenerus) was a German polymath. It is best to refer to him ...

, an astronomer, geographer, and cartographer in the

Free Imperial City of Nuremberg The Free Imperial City of Nuremberg () was a free imperial city – independent city-state – within the Holy Roman Empire. After Nuremberg gained piecemeal independence from the Burgraviate of Nuremberg in the High Middle Ages and considerable ...

. Later the family of Waldburg-Wolfegg acquired the map and it remained in their archives for more than 250 years. In 2001 the United States

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

bought the map from Waldburg-Wolfegg family for ten million dollars.

References

{{Authority control House of Waldburg

Building

Use

Discovery of the map that named America

See also

References