Qualla: Schnellenberg Castle

Schnellenberg Castle: Introduction

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Chris06, CC BY-SA 4.0. When the Cologne Elector Gebhardt Truchsess von Waldburg converted to Protestantism in 1583, he set off a small chain reaction whose end point was a castle. Kaspar von Furstenberg, a Catholic loyalist and bailiff in the Sauerland, refused to follow his sovereign over the confessional line. After Gebhardt was deposed, the new elector, Ernst of Bavaria, rewarded Kaspar's loyalty. In 1594 Kaspar used that favor to buy a half-ruined 13th-century castle on a mountain spur above the Bigge river, just outside Attendorn. Schnellenberg is still in the Furstenberg family today, more than four centuries later, and is now run as a hotel. It is one of those castles whose history is best understood as a family heirloom, not a public monument.

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Image: Chris06 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Schnellenberg Castle: Guarding the Heidenstrasse

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Chris06, CC BY-SA 4.0. Schnellenberg sits on a strategic mountain spur above the southern bank of the Bigge, at a height that lets the eye sweep east toward Attendorn and west toward the Biggesee reservoir. The original castle was raised at the direction of Archbishop Engelbert von Berg of Cologne in t...

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Image: Chris06 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Schnellenberg Castle: The Furstenberg Restoration

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Guillaume Sanson; Alexis Hubert Jaillot, Public domain. When Kaspar von Furstenberg took possession in 1594, the castle was in poor repair. He pulled in a small team of artists and craftsmen, with funding provided by his brother, Dietrich von Furstenberg, prince-bishop of Paderborn. The sculptor Johann Hocheisen cut the new stonework....

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Image: Guillaume Sanson; Alexis Hubert Jaillot | Public domain

Schnellenberg Castle: St George's Chapel

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Tynewyrd, CC BY-SA 4.0. The 16th century Renaissance chapel inside Schnellenberg, dedicated to St George, is the heart of the building's religious story. Its ceiling paintings were whitewashed over in 1837, a common 19th century Protestant or Enlightenment response to baroque interiors, and only restore...

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Image: Tynewyrd | CC BY-SA 4.0

Schnellenberg Castle: Castle, Cellar, and Conference Hall

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Chris06, CC BY-SA 4.0. Today Schnellenberg is a working hotel. The same building that anchored the Heidenstrasse contains a 16th century Renaissance chapel, an underground cellar, a Knights Hall, and a Gobelin Hall now run as a restaurant. The conference facilities suggest the present economic strategy...

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Image: Chris06 | CC BY-SA 4.0