Yesterday was European Palace Day, something that I wish I had known earlier so that I could have shared this post. I have been inspired by my friend Svenja from Castleholic.com to do a CastleMemory series which I shall call Palace/Castle du jour (of the day). Basically, this series will be mainly photos with a short description on the palace/castle. In other words, I won’t have to write an essay and you can go and learn about the history and architecture when you visit. 😉 Today’s palace is (Schloss) Bruchsal Palace in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
The entrance to Schloss Bruchsal. Photo taken in winter 2009.
Entrance of Schloss Bruchsal
I first visited Bruchsal Palace in 2009 as part of my Baden-Württemberg. As it was a week day in winter, I was the only tourist wandering freely around the renovated part of the palace. It is one of the most beautiful palaces in Germany, in my opinion.
Schloss Bruchsal was the ecclesiastical palace complex of the Prince-Bishop Damian Hugo von Schönborn (1676-1743). The three wing Baroque palace was constructed in 1720 and took decades to compete, as usual. Unfortunately, the majority of the palace was destroyed during WWII.
Model of Schloss Bruchsal
The destroyed palace and a bomb
Thankfully, reconstruction of the palace began in the 1950’s and finally opened in 1975. Some of the rooms and the surviving winding staircase have been restored to its former glory. The rest of the palace houses the Städtische Museum (Town Museum) and the Deutsche Musikautomatenmuseum (German Museum of Mechanical Musical Instruments). Sadly, I did not have enough time to see all the mechanical musical instruments but I heard the collection is the best of its kind! Think music boxes, musical clocks, and orchestrions (I tried cranking one of the orchestrions – turned out to be harder than I’d thought)!
Musical clock and musical bird cages
The view from the ‘back’ of the staircase.
I was looking up and clearly unimpressed with the amazing winding staircase. Completely regret not taking more photos…
Entrance from the staircase into the Marble Hall
The Rococo Marmorsaal (Marble Hall)
The Baroque Fürstensaal (Princes’ Hall)
If you would like to visit Bruchsal, consider visiting other palaces in Baden-Wurttemberg with the Schlosscard (castle pass).
Back of Schloss Bruchsal
The Lady and the Rose 
I’m just busy planning my trip to Heidelberg in two days, fancy me reading this post of yours and finding out this beautiful palace is not at all far away from Heidelberg! Something to add to my list.
I was an exchange student in Heidelberg and I still miss HD so! I hope you’ve had a lovely visit to Heidelberg. I visited Bruchsal during my exchange year and I remember it was a fairly short Bahn ride away from HD.
Just visited Bruchsal today and decided to read back your post. We made almost the same pictures, hehe. Even though it’s August, it was quite empty and now and then I was also the only tourist. Weird…. I really liked it, though somehow I had expected there were more rooms than just these 6 or so. But I looove Heidelberg, really a nice and lovely town.
Too bad Bruchsal is often overlooked but I suppose there’s something nice about being the only tourist inside a palace or museum. What do you think? As for the rooms, it’s quite sad how many palaces are only partly restored (but I understand how costly it is and we are lucky to see some of the rooms).
Ah, alte Heidelberg! How I miss my student hometown! I’m glad you loved it!
If you’d like, you can read my travel post from this trip here: http://lady-ofthe-manor.blogspot.nl/2016/08/trip-to-heidelberg.html
Hi Birdie, I’m not sure if you saw my comment on your blogpost but I thought I better respond here just in case. I loved your post and the photos brought back good memories! There were a few places that I had not visited before so I clearly need to visit BaWu again!
Great series of blogposts about the castles and the period drama locations! Kathleen.
Thank you, Kathleen! I was inspired by your blog and Svenja’s posts. 🙂