General tour
Viewing Berchtesgaden Castle is only possible with a guided tour and covers about 30 of the 214 rooms. Guided tours are offered all year round.
There are many important works of art in the rooms of the castle. Among the more than 3,000 exhibits are two retables by Tilman Riemenscheider (around 1500), a Madonna from the circle of Veit Stoss, paintings by Peter Gertner, Barthel Beham and Karl Rottmann, of the most important painters of the times of King Ludwig I of Bavaria (1825 – 1848) and of the “Munich School“. Most rooms are furnished with original items of the time – from Gothic to Empire and Biedermeier.
In three armouries, there are Baroque hunting rifles and medieval war weaponry. Three portals from Neuburg on the Danube Castle have been built into both Renaissance halls, the former parlatory and refectory, one of which is of marble. An extraordinary item is the “Liedertisch“ [Table of Songs] with a Palestrina motet for six voices, engraved in 1591 by Kaspar von der Sitt, with nitric acid on a slab of Solnhofen limestone.
In the two Renaissance halls, the former parlatorium and refectory, three portals from Neuburg Castle on the Danube are built in, one of them made of marble. A special feature is the “song table” with a six-part Palestrina motet etched by Kaspar von der Sitt in 1591 with nitric acid into a slab of Solnhofen stone.
In the Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria Suite on the first floor of the southern wing, there is the “Grand Dining Hall“ with a centrepiece of Nymphenburg Porcelain, with wooden edges, putti and angels.
In 1750, Johan Georg Wahl made the so-called “Convict’s Cabinet“ for Prince-elector Karl Theodor of the Palatinate. The Cabinet maker was alleged to have misused the princely seal and hoped for mercy by making the cabinet. The item of furniture is decorated with mosaic of ivory and mother-of-pearl and has 72 drawers, of which two are secret compartments.
Weather permitting, the tour ends in summer in the Upper Rose Garden.