Schloss Kirchheimbolanden
The palace and its gardens serve as a historical landmark, showcasing centuries of architectural and cultural heritage amidst beautifully preserved green spaces.
von Sponheim-Bolanden asked the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV (1316-1378) to grant the small village of Kirchheimbolanden the status of a town, including the right to fortify it.
The Emperor, whose residence was in Prague, approved the request, and Kirchheimbolanden was subsequently equipped with moats, towers, gates, and a defensive wall.
Prince Charles Augustus of Nassau-Weilburg (1685–1753) ordered the construction, picking up on his father's interrupted plans (designed by Julius Ludwig Rothweil) and commissioning a new palace in the Baroque style at a different location between 1738 and 1740.
Until then, the palace had served as the prince’s summer residence and, alongside Weilburg, as a secondary center of power for the region.
The Baroque impression extended through other buildings beyond the palace to the surrounding neighborhood, giving the area a striking charm that still reflects its former status as a residence today.
Until his death in 1753, the prince brought increasing prestige to the city, and his dominion on the left bank of the Rhine extended from Alsenz in the north to Eisenberg in the south.
She was an accomplished singer, played piano, and maintained a small court orchestra, leading her to engage renowned musicians such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
[1] In his letters, he wrote that he played twelve times in the palace and once in St Paul's Church on the famous Stumm organ of 1745.
His son, prince Frederick William (1768–1816), assumed the regency and expanded his holdings through marriage to the beautiful heiress Countess Louise Isabelle of Sayn-Hachenburg (1772–1827).
The prince returned to Kirchheimbolanden two years later, where he was unexpectedly welcomed warmly, as the French occupation had stripped the town of its former status as a residence and led to widespread impoverishment.
Thus, the era of the Nassau-Wittelsbachs, and with it the princely residence city, effectively ended just four years after the death of Carl Christian's father.
Stolen items included not only beds, saddles, and pistols, but also oil paintings, copper engravings, telescopes, and numerous books.
A complete reconstruction was either financially unfeasible or simply not intended, a condition that persisted for nearly two centuries as the palace changed ownership multiple times.
On March 21, 1839, the property was purchased by Leo von Klenze, a prominent Bavarian architect from Munich, who initiated extensive structural modifications but did not take up permanent residence.
During the revolutionary period of 1848–49, the palace briefly became the headquarters of the Palatinate Freischärler (militiamen), though they were soon expelled by Prussian troops.
A nearby house caught fire, and sparks reached the attic of the palace, where hundreds of pounds of tobacco leaves were being dried.
The burned section was rebuilt by Friedrich Brunck, though in a simplified form: two stories with a hipped roof, a design that remained unchanged for the next 130 years.
The transformation was conducted in close collaboration with the State Office for Monument Preservation to achieve a harmonious blend of the historical structure with the new additions.
The palace was located at the base of a hill near the city center, facing south, and was accompanied by a beautiful park that still exists today.
On today’s Amtsstraße, which runs past the palace, the stately 18th-century Kavaliershäuser (houses for courtiers) for court officials can still be found.
The original plan included a ballroom and an orangery, but when Koellner left Kirchheimbolanden in 1757 to continue his work in Schwetzingen, his brother-in-law, Georg Ludwig Gasqué from Weilburg, took over.
