Mergentheim Palace

{{Infobox building

|name = Mergentheim Palace

|native_name = Schloss Mergentheim

|image = File:Das Deutschordensschloss Bad Mergentheim. 03.jpg

|image_caption = Western facade of the palace

{{Collapsed infobox section begin|div=yes|Map location and basic information}}

|map_type=Baden-Württemberg#Germany

|coordinates = {{coord|49.491210|9.775943|region:DE-BW_type:landmark|display=inline,title}}

|location = Bad Mergentheim, Germany

|owner = Baden-Württemberg

|website={{URL|https://www.schloss-mergentheim.de/en/home}}

}}

File:Aerial image of Schloss Mergentheim (view from the southwest).jpg

Mergentheim Palace (Deutschordensschloss von Mergentheim) is a historic building located in Bad Mergentheim, Germany. The palace was first a castle, built in the early Middle Ages as the seat of the {{ill|Taubergau|de}}, but then became a Teutonic possession in 1219, and then seat of the {{ill|Mergentheim Commandery|de|Meistertum Mergentheim}}. The castle became the residence of the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order in 1527 and remained the headquarters of the Order until 1809.

History

File:Das Deutschordensmuseum. Modell der Burg Rehden.jpg, a Teutonic castle in present-day Poland, in the palace museum]]

The history of Mergentheim Palace begins in the 12th century, when the Counts of {{ill|Lauda, Lauda-Königshofen|de|Lauda (Lauda-Königshofen)|lt=Lauda}} built a castle on the east side of a village called Mergintaim. This castle was then obtained by the House of Hohenlohe,{{sfn|Mergentheim Palace: Milestones}} who began expanding it in 1169. In 1219 the master of the castle, Andreas von Hohenlohe, joined the Teutonic Knights with two relatives and donated Mergentheim to the Order. This transfer to the {{ill|Bailiwick of Franconia|de|Deutschordensballei Franken|lt=Teutonic bailiwick of Franconia}} was presided over by {{ill|Otto I. von Lobdeburg|de}}, Bishop of Würzburg, and confirmed by Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor. The Teutonic Knights were given extensive rights in and over Mergentheim, including the limiting of the citizenry's ability to make legal appeals to the local courts, by Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor in 1340. By the 15th century, the Teutonic outpost at Mergentheim had 19 knights, four of whom were ordained priests.{{sfn|Klöster in Baden-Württemberg: Deutschordenskommende Mergentheim}}

On 26 March 1524, the citizens of Mergentheim, participating in the German Peasants' War, rose in revolt to the Teutonic Order and sacked one of their properties in the town. The gates to the town were opened to the peasants of the Tauber valley on 6 April, whereupon more looting took place and the castle was occupied.{{sfn|Klöster in Baden-Württemberg: Deutschordenskommende Mergentheim}} The residence of the German Master, Horneck Castle, was also attacked by Swabian peasants in 1525 and destroyed. Meanwhile, the Teutonic state in Prussia was secularized by the Kingdom of Poland.{{sfn|Whaley|2012|p=259}} In response to the loss of Horneck Castle, the Franconian bailiwick offered Mergentheim as a residence to the German Master, Walter von Cronberg, in 1527. Cronberg accepted and that year combined the offices of the German Master and Grand Master of the Teutonic Order,{{sfn|Klöster in Baden-Württemberg: Deutschordenskommende Mergentheim}} making Mergentheim the headquarters of the entire Order.{{sfn|Whaley|2012|p=90}} This arrangement was provisional until the loss of Prussia became inexorable with the destruction of the Livonian Order in 1561,{{sfn|Klöster in Baden-Württemberg: Deutschordenskommende Mergentheim}} obliging the Grand Master to remain in Mergentheim. 17 Grand Masters would govern the Order and its territories from Mergentheim until the Order was expulled from the town in 1809.{{sfn|Mergentheim Palace: Milestones}}

=Headquarters of the Teutonic Order=

File:Stadtgeschichte im Deutschordensmuseum. Bad Mergentheim im Jahr 1750. Detail genaues Modell.jpg and the palace as it appeared in 1750]]

In 1568, Georg Hund von Wenkheim, Grand Master since 1566, began to expand Mergentheim Castle into a palatial residence. Maximilian III, Archduke of Austria, as Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, established a seminary on the grounds of Mergentheim Palace in 1606–07. It was to be staffed by 12 knights gathered from the Teutonic bailiwicks.{{sfn|Klöster in Baden-Württemberg: Deutschordenskommende Mergentheim}}

In 1694, Francis Louis of Palatinate-Neuburg, the Prince-Bishop of Breslau, was elected Grand Master of the Teutonic Order to replace his late brother Louis Anton. Francis Louis, who go on to hold five high ecclesiastical offices and extensively reform the Order, rarely spent time at Mergentheim. Towards the end of his tenure, however, he wrote to the Mergentheim authorities about constructing a new high altar in the palace church. When he was informed that it had fallen into disrepair, he ordered a new church.{{sfn|Mergentheim Palace: Franz Ludwig von Pfalz–Neuberg}} Construction began in 1730,{{sfn|Mergentheim Palace: Church}} but Francis Louis died in 1732. He was succeeded as Grand Master by Clemens August of Bavaria, who finished the church in 1736.{{sfn|Mergentheim Palace: Franz Ludwig von Pfalz–Neuberg}}

=Secularization=

File:Das Deutschordensmuseum. Das Modell des Schlosses zeigt den Zustand um 1800.jpg

According to the 1797 Peace of Campo Formio, which concluded the War of the First Coalition, France was to annex the Left Bank of the Rhine and the German princes who lost territory to France were to be compensated with ecclesiastical possessions east of the Rhine. This compensation ballooned into the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss of 1802–03, which erased all ecclesiastical states except the Electorate of Mainz, which was moved south to Regensburg, and the Teutonic Knights at Mergentheim, and the Knights Hospitaller at Heitersheim. The ecclesiastical states were to be governed by German nobles,{{sfn|Wilson|2016|p=135}} with the Teutonic Knights coming under Austrian control.{{sfn|Mergentheim Palace: The Teutonic Knights}} Just two years later in 1805, at the end of the War of the Third Coalition, the Peace of Pressburg gave Mergentheim fully to Austria. Austrian troops were stationed in the town until 1809,{{sfn|Wilson|2016|p=661}} when it was occupied by the Kingdom of Württemberg on 20 April 1809,{{sfn|Klöster in Baden-Württemberg: Deutschordenskommende Mergentheim}} during the War of the Fifth Coalition. In the process of German mediatization that followed in 1809, Napoleon Bonaparte stripped the Teutonic order of its possessions in what was to become the Confederation of the Rhine.{{sfn|Wilson|2016|p=661}} Mergentheim was awarded to Württemberg on 29 May 1809 In the process of annexation, Württemberger authorities looted Mergentheim Palace and moved the seminary's library to Stuttgart, the kingdom's capital.{{sfn|Klöster in Baden-Württemberg: Deutschordenskommende Mergentheim}}

In 1827, Duke Paul Wilhelm of Württemberg received Mergentheim Palace as his residence following his marriage to Princess Maria Sophia of Thurn and Taxis. Paul Wilhelm, a natural scientist and explorer, displayed ethnological, zoological, and botanical specimens and curios collected in his travels in twenty of the palace's rooms.{{sfn|Mergentheim Palace: Paul Wilhelm von Württemberg}} Baron Carl Joseph von Adelsheim managed the Duke's collection, and his own collection of antiquities would later form the basis of the Mergentheim Palace Museum.{{sfn|Mergentheim Palace: Carl Joseph von Adelsheim}}

=Public property=

As a result of the 2019-20 coronavirus pandemic, Staatliche Schlosser und Garten announced on 17 March 2020 the closure of all its monuments and cancellation of all events until 3 May.{{cite web|title=Important information about the Coronavirus|url=https://www.schloesser-und-gaerten.de/en/about-us/coronavirus|publisher=Staatliche Schlösser und Gärten Baden-Württemberg|access-date=18 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200418202507/https://www.schloesser-und-gaerten.de/en/about-us/coronavirus|archive-date=18 April 2020}} Monuments began reopening in early May, from 1 May to 17 May.{{cite web|title=Gradual opening of our monuments|url=https://www.schloesser-und-gaerten.de/en/about-us/coronavirus/gradual-opening|publisher=Staatliche Schlösser und Gärten Baden-Württemberg|access-date=25 May 2020|archive-url=|archive-date=}}

Palace and grounds

The palace comprises two ringed complexes, the inner residential and the outer administrative,{{sfn|Mergentheim Palace: Buildings}} that together cover an area of {{convert|3000|m2|sp=us}}.{{sfn|Mergentheim Palace: Palace and Garden}} The palace began as a pentagonal castle that was first enlarged in 1169. As of 2020, the oldest surviving portion of the complex are the remains of a 13th-century keep to the southeast.{{sfn|Klöster in Baden-Württemberg: Deutschordenskommende Mergentheim}} Beginning in 1568, the castle was expanded and rebuilt in the prevailing Renaissance style.{{sfn|Mergentheim Palace: Buildings}} The palace was again expanded, and remodeled in the Baroque style, by Grand Masters Francis Louis of Palatinate-Neuburg and Clemens August of Bavaria.{{sfn|Mergentheim Palace: Palace and Garden}} An outer ring of buildings, farm buildings and what are now the archive building and the Trapponei, was built from the 16th to 18th centuries and,{{sfn|Klöster in Baden-Württemberg: Deutschordenskommende Mergentheim}} over several phases, joined into one contiguous wing.{{sfn|Mergentheim Palace: Buildings}}

The palace is entered through a gatehouse, which is followed in the outer ring by the archive building, then the Trapponei, an administrative building. This is followed by the carriage house, the Bandhaus, the seminary, the rear gate, the Flughaus, riding hall, a barn, and finally the orangery.{{sfn|Mergentheim Palace: Buildings}}

=Inner ring=

File:Deutschordensschloss - Schlosskirche - Bad Mergentheim 01.jpg

The palace church was designed and built from 1730 to 1736 by {{ill|Franz Joseph Roth|de}}, a stuccoist from Mergentheim who received the counsel of renowned architects Balthasar Neumann and François de Cuvilliés. The ceiling fresco, Glorification of the Cross in Heaven and on Earth, was painted by Munich court painter Johann Nikolaus Stuber. The structure has a nave flanked by a choir on the east of the nave and two galleries on its west, and a royal box accessed from the second floor of the residential building. The church was consecrated on 30 September 1736 and dedicated to the Virgin Mary, Elisabeth of Thuringia, and George of Lydda. It was secularized by decree of the King of Württemberg in 1817. A crypt for the Grand Masters of the Teutonic Order was built below the church and decorated with stucco by Roth, but it was desecrated and the graves were destroyed around 1809.{{sfn|Mergentheim Palace: Church}}

=Outer ring=

One of the last buildings constructed on the palace grounds before its secularization was the chapter house,{{sfn|Mergentheim Palace: Chapter House}} erected in 1780.{{Sfn|Mergentheim Palace: Teutonic Order and the Crusades}} It was commissioned by Grand Master Charles Alexander of Lorraine in 1776 and was designed by Franz Anton Bagnato, master builder of the Teutonic {{ill|Bailiwick of Alsace-Burgundy|de|Deutschordensballei Schwaben-Elsass-Burgund}}. The decoration of the hall's interior is military in character, with stucco reliefs of timpani, trumpets, trophies of arms, and representative symbols for the continents of Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas.{{sfn|Mergentheim Palace: Chapter House}} The illustrations in the chapter house generally glorify the history of the Teutonic Order.{{sfn|Mergentheim Palace: Teutonic Order and the Crusades}}

=Gardens=

File:Bad Mergentheim, Schloß 4, 5, 6 20170707 001.jpg

Mergentheim Palace has had a garden since at least 1600, when a court garden was laid out on the southern and eastern edge of the palatial grounds. From 1739 to 1745, Grandmaster Bayern had that garden replaced with a French-style garden that included an orangery and a pavilion designed by architect François de Cuvilliés. This pavilion was demolished in 1823. In 1791, Grandmaster Maximilian Francis of Austria decided replace the existing gardens with an English landscape garden. The path the garden would be laid out around was completed in 1800, while work on the garden itself was completed by 1804–05. This garden also included two new pavilions completed in 1802.{{sfn|Mergentheim Palace: Park}}

A portion of the palace gardens lies on the right bank of the Tauber, away from the palace.{{sfn|Mergentheim Palace: Park}}

=Museums=

File:Stadtgeschichte im Deutschordensmuseum. Mutter Gottes im Strahlenkranz, 1798 von Georg Stephan Dörffer.jpg statuette produced by goldsmith Georg Stephan Dörffer from a design by Johann Peter Alexander Wagner{{sfn|Mergentheim Palace: Radiant Madonna}}]]

In 1864, Carl Joseph von Adelsheim's collection of antiquities was donated to the city of Mergentheim per his will. According to Adelsheim's wishes, the collection was displayed in a room in Bad Mergentheim's town hall,{{sfn|Mergentheim Palace: Adelsheim Collection}} and it was expanded in subsequent years by donations. The collection was moved into Mergentheim Palace in 1927 and three years later gained the sponsorship of local history association and was rebranded into a local history museum. The focus of the museum shifted to the history of the Teutonic Knights after World War II. After a four-year renovation between 1969 and 1973, the palace museum reopened as the {{ill|Teutonic Order Museum|de|Deutschordensmuseum}}. The museum was further enlarged from 1990 to 1996 to fill the entire residential building, bringing it to a size of {{convert|3000|m2|sp=us}}.{{sfn|Mergentheim Palace: History of the Museums}}

The second floor of the residential building is filled by the exhibit dedicated to the history of the Teutonic Knights, and their legacy in popular culture.{{sfn|Mergentheim Palace: Teutonic Knights Exhibit}} A portion of the Teutonic Order Museum is a permanent exhibit on local Jewish history, with a focus on brothers Feilx and {{ill|Hermann Fechenbach|de}}, who were born in Mergentheim.{{sfn|Mergentheim Palace: Jewish History Exhibit}} Another of the museum's exhibits showcases dollhouses from the 19th and 20th centuries.{{Sfn|Mergentheim Palace: Dollhouses}}

Other permanent exhibits at the palace include one dedicated to the pastor and poet Eduard Mörike, who lived in Bad Mergentheim with his sister Klara from 1844 to 1851,{{sfn|Mergentheim Palace: Mörike Cabinet}} and a municipal history exhibit.{{sfn|Mergentheim Palace: Municipal History Exhibit}} The first of these is a collection of over a hundred items collected by the palace museum over a century. Its centerpiece is a housekeeping book that Mörike decorated with drawings that was donated to the museum in 1904 by Mörike's daughter.{{sfn|Mergentheim Palace: Mörike's Housekeeping Book}} The municipal history exhibit is made up of twelve sections and a model of Bad Mergentheim as it appeared around 1750.{{sfn|Mergentheim Palace: Municipal History Exhibit}}

Citations

References

{{cite book|last=Wilson|first=Peter H.|authorlink=Peter H. Wilson|title=Heart of Europe: A History of the Holy Roman Empire|year=2016|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-67-405809-5}}
{{cite book|last=Whaley|first=Joachim|authorlink=Joachim Whaley|title=Germany and the Holy Roman Empire|volume=I: Maximilian to the Peace of Westphalia, 1493–1648|year=2012|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-873101-6}}

;German Federal and Baden-Württemberg State governments (in German)

{{cite web|title=Das Schloss und Der Garten|url=https://www.schloss-mergentheim.de/erlebnis-schloss-garten/schloss-garten|publisher={{ill|Staatliche Schlösser und Gärten Baden-Württemberg|de}}|access-date=19 August 2020|ref={{sfnref|Mergentheim Palace: Palace and Garden}}}}
{{cite web|title=Die Gebäude|url=https://www.schloss-mergentheim.de/erlebnis-schloss-garten/schloss-garten/gebaeude|publisher=Staatliche Schlösser und Gärten Baden-Württemberg|access-date=20 August 2020|ref={{sfnref|Mergentheim Palace: Buildings}}}}
{{cite web|title=Die Alte Fürstenwohnung|url=https://www.schloss-mergentheim.de/erlebnis-schloss-garten/schloss-garten/gebaeude/alte-fuerstenwohnung|publisher=Staatliche Schlösser und Gärten Baden-Württemberg|access-date=20 August 2020|ref={{sfnref|Mergentheim Palace: Old Princes' Apartment}}}}
{{cite web|title=Die Neue Fürstenwohnung|url=https://www.schloss-mergentheim.de/erlebnis-schloss-garten/schloss-garten/gebaeude/neue-fuerstenwohnung|publisher=Staatliche Schlösser und Gärten Baden-Württemberg|access-date=20 August 2020|ref={{sfnref|Mergentheim Palace: New Princes' Apartments}}}}
{{cite web|title=Der Kapitelsaal|url=https://www.schloss-mergentheim.de/erlebnis-schloss-garten/schloss-garten/gebaeude/kapitelsaal|publisher=Staatliche Schlösser und Gärten Baden-Württemberg|access-date=20 August 2020|ref={{sfnref|Mergentheim Palace: Chapter House}}}}
{{cite web|title=Die Treppen im Schloss|url=https://www.schloss-mergentheim.de/erlebnis-schloss-garten/schloss-garten/gebaeude/treppen-im-schloss|publisher=Staatliche Schlösser und Gärten Baden-Württemberg|access-date=20 August 2020|ref={{sfnref|Mergentheim Palace: Staircases}}}}
{{cite web|title=Die Schlosskirche|url=https://www.schloss-mergentheim.de/erlebnis-schloss-garten/schloss-garten/gebaeude/schlosskirche|publisher=Staatliche Schlösser und Gärten Baden-Württemberg|access-date=20 August 2020|ref={{sfnref|Mergentheim Palace: Church}}}}
{{cite web|title=Schlosspark|url=https://www.schloss-mergentheim.de/erlebnis-schloss-garten/schloss-garten/garten|publisher=Staatliche Schlösser und Gärten Baden-Württemberg|access-date=19 August 2020|ref={{sfnref|Mergentheim Palace: Park}}}}
{{cite web|title=Das Hockergrab von Althausen|url=https://www.schloss-mergentheim.de/erlebnis-schloss-garten/verborgene-schaetze/hockergrab-von-althausen|publisher=Staatliche Schlösser und Gärten Baden-Württemberg|access-date=20 August 2020|ref={{sfnref|Mergentheim Palace: Althausen Hockergrab}}}}
{{cite web|title=Die Strahlenkranzmadonna|url=https://www.schloss-mergentheim.de/erlebnis-schloss-garten/verborgene-schaetze/strahlenkranzmadonna|publisher=Staatliche Schlösser und Gärten Baden-Württemberg|access-date=20 August 2020|ref={{sfnref|Mergentheim Palace: Radiant Madonna}}}}
{{cite web|title=Mörikes Haushaltungsbach|url=https://www.schloss-mergentheim.de/erlebnis-schloss-garten/verborgene-schaetze/moerikes-haushaltungsbuch|publisher=Staatliche Schlösser und Gärten Baden-Württemberg|access-date=20 August 2020|ref={{sfnref|Mergentheim Palace: Mörike's Housekeeping Book}}}}
{{cite web|title=Der Deutsche Orden|url=https://www.schloss-mergentheim.de/erlebnis-schloss-garten/ausstellungen/deutscher-orden|publisher=Staatliche Schlösser und Gärten Baden-Württemberg|access-date=20 August 2020|ref={{sfnref|Mergentheim Palace: Teutonic Knights Exhibit}}}}
{{cite web|title=Jungsteinzeit im Taubertal|url=https://www.schloss-mergentheim.de/erlebnis-schloss-garten/ausstellungen/jungsteinzeit-im-taubertal|publisher=Staatliche Schlösser und Gärten Baden-Württemberg|access-date=20 August 2020|ref={{sfnref|Mergentheim Palace: Neolithic Exhibit}}}}
{{cite web|title=Die Adelsheim-Sammlung|url=https://www.schloss-mergentheim.de/erlebnis-schloss-garten/ausstellungen/die-adelsheim-sammlung|publisher=Staatliche Schlösser und Gärten Baden-Württemberg|access-date=20 August 2020|ref={{sfnref|Mergentheim Palace: Adelsheim Collection}}}}
{{cite web|title=Mörike-Kabinett|url=https://www.schloss-mergentheim.de/erlebnis-schloss-garten/ausstellungen/das-moerike-kabinett|publisher=Staatliche Schlösser und Gärten Baden-Württemberg|access-date=20 August 2020|ref={{sfnref|Mergentheim Palace: Mörike Cabinet}}}}
{{cite web|title=Puppenstuben|url=https://www.schloss-mergentheim.de/erlebnis-schloss-garten/ausstellungen/puppenstuben|publisher=Staatliche Schlösser und Gärten Baden-Württemberg|access-date=20 August 2020|ref={{sfnref|Mergentheim Palace: Dollhouses}}}}
{{cite web|title=Jüdisches Leben in Mergentheim|url=https://www.schloss-mergentheim.de/erlebnis-schloss-garten/ausstellungen/juedisches-leben-in-mergentheim|publisher=Staatliche Schlösser und Gärten Baden-Württemberg|access-date=20 August 2020|ref={{sfnref|Mergentheim Palace: Jewish History Exhibit}}}}
{{cite web|title=Ausstellung zur Stadtgeschichte|url=https://www.schloss-mergentheim.de/erlebnis-schloss-garten/ausstellungen/stadtgeschichte|publisher=Staatliche Schlösser und Gärten Baden-Württemberg|access-date=20 August 2020|ref={{sfnref|Mergentheim Palace: Municipal History Exhibit}}}}
{{cite web|title=Meilenstine|url=https://www.schloss-mergentheim.de/wissenswert-amuesant/meilensteine|publisher=Staatliche Schlösser und Gärten Baden-Württemberg|access-date=19 August 2020|ref={{sfnref|Mergentheim Palace: Milestones}}}}
{{cite web|title=Blasius Berwart|url=https://www.schloss-mergentheim.de/wissenswert-amuesant/persoenlichkeiten/blasius-berwart|publisher=Staatliche Schlösser und Gärten Baden-Württemberg|access-date=20 August 2020|ref={{sfnref|Mergentheim Palace: Blasius Berwart}}}}
{{cite web|title=Paul Wilhelm von Württemberg|url=https://www.schloss-mergentheim.de/wissenswert-amuesant/persoenlichkeiten/paul-wilhelm-von-wuerttemberg|publisher=Staatliche Schlösser und Gärten Baden-Württemberg|access-date=20 August 2020|ref={{sfnref|Mergentheim Palace: Paul Wilhelm von Württemberg}}}}
{{cite web|title=Carl Joseph von Adelsheim|url=https://www.schloss-mergentheim.de/wissenswert-amuesant/persoenlichkeiten/carl-joseph-von-adelsheim|publisher=Staatliche Schlösser und Gärten Baden-Württemberg|access-date=20 August 2020|ref={{sfnref|Mergentheim Palace: Carl Joseph von Adelsheim}}}}
{{cite web|title=Franz Ludwig von Pfalz–Neuberg|url=https://www.schloss-mergentheim.de/wissenswert-amuesant/persoenlichkeiten/franz-ludwig-von-pfalz-neuburg|publisher=Staatliche Schlösser und Gärten Baden-Württemberg|access-date=20 August 2020|ref={{sfnref|Mergentheim Palace: Franz Ludwig von Pfalz–Neuberg}}}}
{{cite web|title=Der Deutsche Orden|url=https://www.schloss-mergentheim.de/wissenswert-amuesant/dossiers/der-deutsche-orden|publisher=Staatliche Schlösser und Gärten Baden-Württemberg|access-date=20 August 2020|ref={{sfnref|Mergentheim Palace: The Teutonic Knights}}}}
{{cite web|title=Der Deutschen Orden und die Kreuzzüge|url=https://www.schloss-mergentheim.de/wissenswert-amuesant/dossiers/der-deutsche-orden-und-die-kreuzzuege|publisher=Staatliche Schlösser und Gärten Baden-Württemberg|access-date=8 April 2021|ref={{sfnref|Mergentheim Palace: Teutonic Order and the Crusades}}}}
{{cite web|title=Die Geschichte des Museums|url=https://www.schloss-mergentheim.de/wissenswert-amuesant/dossiers/geschichte-des-museums|publisher=Staatliche Schlösser und Gärten Baden-Württemberg|access-date=20 August 2020|ref={{sfnref|Mergentheim Palace: History of the Museums}}}}
{{cite web|last=Weiss|first=Dieter J.|title=Deutschordenskommende Mergentheim - Geschichte|url=https://www.kloester-bw.de/klostertexte.php?kreis=Main-Tauber-Kreis&bistum=&alle=1&ungeteilt=&art=&orden=&orte=&buchstabe=&nr=168&thema=Geschichte|work=Klöster in Baden-Württemberg|publisher={{ill|Baden-Württemberg State Archive|de|Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg}}|access-date=20 August 2020|ref={{sfnref|Klöster in Baden-Württemberg: Deutschordenskommende Mergentheim}}}}

External links

[https://www.schloss-mergentheim.de/en/home Official website] (in German)

Category:Castles in Main-Tauber-Kreis

Category:Castles of the Teutonic Knights