Untersulmetingen Castle is a small castle-like renaissance structure located on a slow slope of a terminal moraine to the west of the river Riß. It is a plain, three-storey building, covered by a large gabled roof which dates from around 1600. The castles' chapel, which dates from 1608 and was dedicated to Saint Othmar, is decorated by paintings and stucco whose function it is to amalgamate the encompassed forms of the windows and paintings into a moving form.
A medieval castle was built around 1400. In March 1525 this castle was looted and burnt down by the Baltringer Haufen during the German Peasants' War. On the death of Georg von Sulmetingen in 1528, the original local nobility became extinct, after which the castle and the village repeatedly changed hands. Between 1538 and 1542, Hieronymus Roth von Schreckenstein, a patrician from Ulm, had a new castle built on the foundations of the previous one, destroyed during the Peasants' War.
In 1551 Untersulmetingen Castle was acquired by Johann Jakob Fugger. His successors altered the castle fundamentally. Around 1600, the gabled roof was constructed. In 1608, Trajan Fugger added a Rococo-style chapel to the castle. He invested a large sum to embellish the castle itself and its precinct, erecting a gatehouse, a castle garden, a tithe barn and several economy buildings. In 1729, the castle was mortgaged to Ochsenhausen Abbey which ultimately bought the castle in 1735.
Between 1730 and 1732, Benedikt Denzel, abbot of Ochsenhausen Abbey, redesigned the interior of Untersulmetingen Castle as well as the castles' chapel, employing prestigious artists such as sculptor Dominikus Hermenegild Herberger and painter Franz Joseph Spiegler.
In 1803, after the dissolution of the monasteries during the secularisation, the castle went into the hands of Georg Karl von Metternich-Winneburg und Beilstein as compensation for territories lost to France following Napoleon's conquests. In 1805 he sold the castle to Karl Anselm von Thurn und Taxis. In December 1805 the village passed into the possession of the Kingdom of Bavaria and in 1806 it was assigned to the Kingdom of Württemberg. Karl Anselm von Thurn und Taxis remained lord of the castle until the feudal tenure was abolished later on. From that time the castle was allocated to the local priest who used it as his residence until 1969, when it was sold into private hands.
References:
The Walls of Constantinople are a series of defensive stone walls that have surrounded and protected the city of Constantinople (today Istanbul) since its founding as the new capital of the Roman Empire by Constantine the Great. With numerous additions and modifications during their history, they were the last great fortification system of antiquity, and one of the most complex and elaborate systems ever built. They were also the largest and strongest fortification in both the ancient and medieval world.
Initially built by Constantine the Great, the walls surrounded the new city on all sides, protecting it against attack from both sea and land. As the city grew, the famous double line of the Theodosian Walls was built in the 5th century. Although the other sections of the walls were less elaborate, they were, when well-manned, almost impregnable for any medieval besieger.