In 1216, King Frederick II donated the Ellingen Hospital to the Teutonic Order.[1][2], the nucleus of the later Ellingen Commandery. Around the middle of the 13th century, the Teutonic Order had asserted this property against the older claims of the Berchtesgaden Abbey.[3] In 1253, a commander of Ellingen was first documented. Until 1789, Ellingen was the residence of the commander of the Franconian Bailiwick of the Teutonic Order.
The current palace complex, which was built from 1708 to around 1760, was preceded by several medieval buildings and a Renaissance building. The current main building was built between 1717 and 1721 by the architect Franz Keller based on plans by Wilhelm Heinrich Behringer under the instructions of Karl Heinrich von Hornstein. Various ceiling paintings, wall paneling and floors, as well as stucco by Franz Joseph Roth, have been preserved from this period. The colonnades in the inner courtyard were built during the reconstruction by Pierre Michel d'Ixnard around 1775. In 1796, Hardenberg occupied most of the Ellingen district militarily because of the claim to state sovereignty with Brandenburg-Ansbach, which was ultimately not resolved.[4] However, this did not initially affect the court and fee rights of the Teutonic Order.[5]
After the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation by Napoleon in 1806, Ellingen, like other parts of Franconia, became part of the Kingdom of Bavaria, and the Franconian Bailiwick was mediatized. In 1815, the Bavarian King Maximilian I Joseph handed the castle over to his field marshal, Prince Carl Philipp von Wrede, who had some rooms furnished with silk and paper wallpaper as well as furniture, glass and bronze figures from Paris. The Ellingen court existed until 1840.
Around 1939, the von Wrede family sold the castle to the Bavarian state. It is now maintained by the Bavarian Palace Administration, which carried out many conservation measures around 1990, such as gutting the attics and renovating the foundations.
Source: Wikipedia