Württemberg Castle (Germany)

The castle of Sigmaringen was the first time in 1077 in the chronicles of the Petershausen monastery.

The oldest parts of the castle are hidden under the changes made during the 17th and 19th century. The secret of the oldest settlement built on this defensible rock will never be completely revealed: it would take the large-scale excavation work, the extensive development of the territory makes it impossible. Judging by the numerous Roman remains found in the area around Sigmaringen, the keep the 12th century known as the "Roman Tower" could be traced to a Roman predecessor.
The remains of the castle that have been preserved (gate, Great Hall, and keep) date back to the Staufer period around 1200. The remains of the castle were integrated into later buildings. The foundations of the castle buildings are largely identical to the surrounding wall of the castle.

These remains give us a good idea of ​​how the castle might have looked during the 12th century. With defense in mind, the castle had a pyramid and single pitched roofs with several towers and gates. The openings of the round windows and friezes in the solid walls of the castle made an artistic highlight of the Upper Danube valley.
there are no known construction of the remains have been left behind by 13th and 14th century. Only in the 15th century did a new period of construction starts in the castle under the eminent Count and architecturally mentality of Werdenberg. The Werdenbergs expanded the building to the northeast. Only the lintel engraved 1498, which is part of the Swedish Tower, now remains. A few years later, the building was expanded to the west.

The third period construction began during the time of Count Charles II of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (1576-1606). Under the supervision of the master builder Hans Alberthal Dillingen, the castle underwent a large-scale transformations between 1627 and 1630 and went from being a castle to be a Renaissance castle.

In around 1650, the two separate buildings of the Werdenberg period were brought together under one roof by master builder Michael Beer from Au in the Bregenz Forest.

Only minor renovations and the construction work was carried out during the 18th century. The ancestral hall was set up in the castle in 1736 (renovated in 1879). During the years 1860/1880, changes in neo-Gothic style were made under real master builder Josef Laur. The castle has been extensively redesigned after the Great Fire of 1893, during which almost all the castle was destroyed. The work was designed by the Royal Johannes de Pay and especially from Monaco Munich architect Emanuel von Seidl in a historicist or eclectic style.

The Portuguese Gallery, which encloses the inner courtyard on the side facing the city, was completed in 1902 and marked the end of this period of changes.