CastleXPlorer

The Augustusburg Castle is a 18th century castle located in Brühl, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The Castle was built between 1725 and 1768 on orders of Clemens August of Bavaria, Archbishop-Elector of Cologne on the ruins of the water fortress which was blasted in 1689.

Augustusburg Castle, Germany

The architects were Johann Conrad Schlaun and later François de Cuvilliés, while the castle's magnificent Roccoco staircase designed Johann Balthasar Neumann. Clemens August of Bavaria died in 1761 before the castle's completion but his successor Max Friedrich von Königsegg completed the castle according to the designs of his predecessor.

After the French Revolution was the Electorate of Cologne abolished and the Augustusburg Castle was captured by the French forces. Napoleon Bonaparte gave the Augustusburg Castle to Marshal Davoust but the castle fell into neglect. In 1815 the Augustusburg Castle came into Prussian hands and in 1842 Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia ordered its restoration. The Augustusburg Castle was seriously damaged during the World War II but it was shortly afterwards restored and was since 1949 for many decades used as the representative seat of the President and government of the Federal Republic of Germany. The Augustusburg Castle, by many considered the most outstanding baroque castle in Rhineland, is today open to the public and every year from the beginning of May until the end of August houses the Brühl castle concerts. In 1984 was the Augustusburg Castle together with Falkenlust Castle also inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage sites.