Schloss Girsberg, Regional château in Kreuzlingen, Switzerland
Schloss Girsberg, also called Mittel-Girsberg, stands in Emmishofen, part of Kreuzlingen. The 1790 rebuilding by Zwiefalten Abbey replaced the older castle with a multi-storey residence that served as an abbey administrative seat. A small tower now holds a 1762 bell cast by Leonhard Rosenlächer, originally from the castle chapel demolished around 1840.
First mentioned in 1473, Girsberg passed through many owners, including Konstanz physician Ulrich von Wengy in 1518 and the Zwiefalten monastery from 1679 to 1803. The monastery rebuilt the castle in 1790. In 1840 Amélie Macaire, who had inherited it, and her husband Count Friedrich von Zeppelin received Girsberg as a Christmas gift; their son Ferdinand, the airship pioneer, owned it alone from 1870.
The former estate barn, no longer used for farming, was converted into a "Kulturscheune" in 2002–2003. Since then it has housed a doll museum and a memorial room dedicated to Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin, who owned Girsberg from 1870 and spent summers there.
Schloss Girsberg stands in Emmishofen, part of Kreuzlingen in the canton of Thurgau. The former estate barn, converted into a "Kulturscheune" in 2002–2003, now holds a doll museum and a memorial room for Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin. The castle itself is privately owned and not open to visitors, so plan to view it from outside.
Ferdinand von Zeppelin, born in 1838, spent his summers at Girsberg and owned it alone from 1870. For his 70th birthday on 8 July 1908, almost the whole village of Emmishofen marched up with a torch procession, and the village's own fireworks factory, Alois Müller, set off a display.
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