Bruchsal Palace
Bruchsal Palace, a.k.a. Damiansburg, is a marvelous baroque masterpiece. However, what you’re about to see on the photos below isn’t original, but let’s start at the beginning:
Construction of Bruchsal Palace originally started at 1720. The Palace consisted of more than 50 buildings, which have been separated from each other for safety reasons: The idea was to prevent the whole Palace from burning down in case of a fire. The idea was brilliant!
Unfortunately…
On 1st of March 1945, just two month before the end of World War II in Germany, a British bomber heading for Mannheim (~35-40Km further north of Bruchsal) discharged its load over Bruchsal. Some of the bombs hit the Palace directly. Destroying most of it’s structures. What was left fell victim to the fire that followed the bombing. After the smoke cleared Palace Bruchsal was completely destroyed.
Reconstruction started in the 1950s. The most recent parts have been finished 2006. However, only those parts that were documented could have been restored. Some chambers still remain empty because the knowledge how they originally looked went lost.
Having seen dozens of palaces, Bruchsal is still one of my favorites. Judging form the size of the guided tour, it seems it’s kind of a secret tip.
Visit Bruchsal Palace
Bruchsal Palace is one of the attractions included in the Baden-Württemberg Schlosscard, a booklet that grants you free entrance to 26 important cultural monuments in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. The price for the Schlosscard is just 26€. In other words: One euro per site!
What makes the Schlosscard such an incredible great deal are the guided tours, which are also included. The only downside is that it’s valid for a full year only, and visiting 26 monuments during one year is quite challenging. But even if you don’t visit them all, it’s at least a nice souvenir and it pays off after the fourth, latest after the fifth site you visit.
For opening hours and additional information, please visit Bruchsal Palace’s official website.
