| Bruchsal Palace | |||||||||||
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Schloss Bruchsal | |||||||||||
.jpg) Corps de logis from the cour d'honneur, looking northwest.
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| Coordinates | 49°7′43.3″N 8°35′55.5″E / 49.128694°N 8.598750°E | ||||||||||
Bruchsal Palace (Schloss Bruchsal), also called the Damiansburg, is a Baroque palace complex located in Bruchsal, Germany. The complex is made up of over 50 buildings. These include a three-winged residential building with an attached chapel, four pavilions separated by a road, some smaller utility buildings, and a garden. It is noted for its fine Rococo decoration and in particular its entrance staircase, which is regarded as one of the finest examples of its kind in any Baroque palace.
The palace was built in the first half of the 18th century by Damian Hugo Philipp von Schönborn, Prince-Bishop of Speyer. Schönborn drew on family connections to recruit building staff and experts in the Baroque style, most notably Balthasar Neumann. Although intended to be the permanent residence of the Prince-Bishops, they occupied it for less than a century.
On 1 March 1945, only two months before the end of the Second World War, much of the palace was destroyed in an American air raid directed against nearby railway installations. It has since been completely rebuilt in a restoration project that lasted until 1996. The interiors have been partly restored and the palace now houses two museums.