Schloss Blutenburg

Schloss Blutenburg is a historic castle in western Munich, set between two arms of the River Würm. Its walls, towers, and gate tower create a compact medieval silhouette. The site began as a moated castle in the thirteenth century before becoming a hunting lodge. Remains of the original residential tower were uncovered in 1981.

Duke Albert III of Bavaria commissioned the hunting lodge in the late fourteenth century, while his son Sigismund expanded it from 1488. That expansion added the late Gothic chapel visible within the surviving complex. Its stained-glass windows and 1491 altar paintings by Jan Polack remain distinctive details. Apostle statues bear the name of the mysterious Master of the Blutenburg Apostles. The main building suffered during the Thirty Years’ War, then underwent renewal in the late seventeenth century. Late seventeenth-century renewal preserved its fifteenth-century character.

The International Youth Library occupies the castle, adding a literary function to its historic setting. A nearby memorial by Hubertus von Pilgrim recalls victims of the Dachau concentration camp death march.