The Graf-Luxburg-Museum

The Graf-Luxburg-Museum is one of the three Schloss Aschach museums (Museen Schloss Aschach) together with a folklore/ethnography and a school museum. The Museen Schloss Aschach are run by the District of Lower Franconia. They are located in Aschach, Bad Bocklet, in the Bavarian district of Bad Kissingen.

Schloss Aschach came into the possession of the counts of Luxburg in 1874 after an eventful history. The Luxburgs originally belonged to the St. Gallen Girtanner family of town councillors; they joined the ranks of the Palatinate-Zweibrücken nobility in 1776 and the Bavarian nobility in 1813.

Count Friedrich of Luxburg (1829-1905), Royal Bavarian President of Lower Franconia and Aschaffenburg, and his wife Countess Luise (born Princess of Schönaich-Carolath, 1847-1929) bought Schloss Aschach from the Sattler Family in 1874 and converted it into a summer residence for themselves and their six sons.

Count Friedrich of Luxburg was a dedicated collector, and spent years acquiring artworks and antiques for the living quarters of the castle. He was particularly interested in furniture, European art and silver, glass and ceramic work. There are also records of acquisitions of Asian porcelain and cloisonnés produced for the European export market. Cloisonnés were highly ornate items: thin wires or strips of metal were soldered to an object, usually metal. Different colours of enamel paste were then applied to the partitioned sections created in this way – known as cloisons – before the object was fired. The cloisons prevented the colours from blending.

The couple's second-oldest son, Count Karl of Luxburg (1872-1956), worked as an envoy at the embassy in Beijing from 1905 to 1906 and from 1909 to 1912. Fascinated by Chinese culture, he bought valuable items of porcelain, stoneware, bronzes, rare carved lacquerware, enamel, jade and ivory, sculptures, furniture and textiles from local dealers. After the death of his parents, Karl, Count of Luxburg and his wife Countess Carola (nee Martínez de Hoz, 1877-1968) took over Schloss Aschach as their summer residence and filled the rooms with his collection of East Asian objects.

In 1955, Karl, Count of Luxburg gifted the castle and its grounds and contents to the District of Lower Franconia, on the condition that the castle and the collections in it would be preserved and made accessible to the public. In 1957, the Graf-Luxburg-Museum opened in the main castle building under the management of Prof. Max Hermann von Freeden (1913-2001), who was at the time the director of the Mainfränkisches Museum in Würzburg (now the Museum für Franken - Museum for Franconia).

The Graf-Luxburg-Museum reopened in July 2020 after a four-year redesign. The family's living quarters and the servants' working quarters give visitors an insight into how the aristocracy lived in the 19th and 20th centuries. The exhibition of European art, which includes Gothic and Renaissance paintings and works in silver and glass, and the East Asian art exhibition with its impressive porcelain and bronze testify to both Counts of Luxburg's enthusiasm for collecting.

• The objects of the "Graf-Luxburg-Museum" available on bavarikon

Collections of the Graf-Luxburg-Museum available on bavarikon

• The collection of East Asian Art at Graf-Luxburg-Museum, part of Museen Schloss Aschach