Haugsdorf was first mentioned in a medieval document in 1108. For centuries, noble families and sovereigns alternated as owners of the manor. There was also a second manor - a moated castle - which fell into ruin after the Thirty Years' War and can only be found in fragments today: when the old horse pond on the main square was removed in 1886, huge building stones and pieces of pillars were found which may have come from it.
A castle that didn't want to be one
During the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), the estate came into the possession of Baron Christoph Sigmund von Kirchberg, who converted the simple farmstead into a castle. A detail on the façade still reveals its original purpose today: the double-passage windows on the gable of the east wing indicate that it was once a granary, not a state room.
From 1810 to 1819, the castle housed Haugsdorf's first pharmacy. After that, the municipal chancellery, district court, tax office and notary's office moved in - authorities that only moved into the new building on the main square when the savings bank building was opened in 1886 and 1963 respectively. The castle was the administrative heart of the town for generations. At the end of the 1950s, the building became private property and was used as a castle hotel with a restaurant, pub and coffee house. A restaurant is currently housed in the adjoining granary.
By the way: Stipedien by foundation: The Barons of Kirchberg, whose history can be traced back to 1094, with "Cadeloch von Kirchberg" as the verifiable progenitor, formed the "Lordship of Haugsdorf" with a large holding of meadows, vineyards and farmland. After the death of Francisca Polixena von Kirchberg in 1710, the "Freiherr von Kirchberg'sche Stiftungsfonds" was established, to which the Haugsdorf estate also belonged. When the revolution of 1848 abolished the manorial estates, the Freiherr von Kirchberg Foundation was transformed into a charitable, earmarked institution that awarded scholarships to those in social need.
