Meßkirch Castle, Renaissance château in Messkirch, Germany

Meßkirch Castle is a four-winged Renaissance palace arranged around a central courtyard, built from 1557 for Count Froben Christoph von Zimmern. It was the first regular quadrangular Renaissance palace north of the Alps. A capstone in the town wing bears the year 1557, and the builder Jörg Schwarzenberger is documented in 1561 and 1566. The castle now houses a cultural and museum centre.

Around 1400 Johannes von Zimmern built the "old castle", using rubble stone hauled from Benzenberg Castle. After 1520 his descendant Gottfried Werner remodelled it so poorly that it soon decayed, which gave Froben Christoph grounds to demolish it. On 9 May 1557 Froben Christoph laid the foundation stone of the new palace; a capstone dated 1557 survives in the town wing. The builder Jörg Schwarzenberger is documented in Meßkirch in 1561 and 1566.

Since 1594 the castle has passed by inheritance, and from 1716 it was the residence of the separate Fürstenberg-Meßkirch line. Today it serves as the town's cultural and museum centre, housing a museum on philosopher Martin Heidegger, a county art gallery and an oldtimer museum of automobiles and motorcycles.

The castle stands in the town centre of Meßkirch, in the Sigmaringen district of Baden-Württemberg. Inside are the county art gallery, the Martin Heidegger museum and the Oldtimer Museum with automobiles and motorcycles; guided castle tours are offered. The four wings enclose a central courtyard, and the town wing holds a capstone dated 1557.

The Rittersaal, measuring 30 by 9.6 metres, has a coffered wooden ceiling of 85 separate elements and no supporting columns, since the ceiling is self-supporting. It dates to 1561 and is considered the oldest Renaissance festival hall in Germany. A second coffered ceiling was only rediscovered in the west wing in December 1985.