Welcome to Villa Ludwigshöhe Castle

The villa was built between 1846 and 1852 according to plans by the royal court architect Friedrich von Gärtner. In July 1852, the meanwhile abdicated king and his wife, Therese, travelled here for the first time for a six-week summer retreat and visited the villa every other summer until his death in 1868.

The complex consisted of three buildings:the main “Königsbau“ structure, situated on the highest point below the ruins of Rietburg Castle, the slightly lower “Cavalierbau“, also known as the “Prinzenbau“, for staff and court, and the stables with sheds and stables. The main building, the Königsbau, consists of four wings that enclose a shaded inner courtyard as a closed rectangle.The front side facing the Rhine Valley is characterised by the two-storey loggia with Doric and Ionic columns placed one above another and a double flight of steps. A laterally attached hall with a pergola, which was originally overgrown with vines, breaks up the strict structure.

The surprisingly Mediterranean feel of the exterior architecture is continued inside with skilfully assembled exotic wood floors and precious wall and ceiling paintings. The painted ceilings date back to Ludwig‘s time. Some of the wall paintings, on the other hand – which combine motifs modelled on Pompeii with those from the Palatinate region – were not created until 1899 under Prince Regent Luitpold. 

As a “high-tech product“ of the 19th century, the kitchen deserves special mention. It has been preserved almost unchanged as a closed, uniform ensemble of rooms.

The state of Rhineland-Palatinate acquired the villa in 1975 from the Wittelsbach Equalisation Fund. From 2019 to 2025, the most extensive refurbishment measures to date took place, affecting the entire building.