Tübingen Giant Barrel

The wooden barrel, made in 1549, was commissioned by Duke Ulrich of Württemberg (1487-1550) from the master cooper Simon from Bönnigheim. The barrel turned out to be leaky, so it was only filled twice and soon fell into oblivion. It contains 84,000 litres or 286 buckets (294 litres). The wooden plaque on the barrel tells its story:

As a great book am I known, By Duke Ulrich so named
1546 I was built, From 90 oaks, as you see,
Twice I was filled with wine, 286 buckets I take in.

Tübinger Riesenfass - Fass und Herzog Ulrich

Today, the giant barrel shares the so-called barrel cellar under the Knights' Hall of Hohentübingen Palace with mouse-eared bats, a rare species. To protect them, the barrel was no longer open to the public from 1991 to 2018. A second cellar door provides a direct connection to the rooms of the Museum of the University of Tübingen MUT, so that visitors do not have to enter the retreat of the protected species. In any case, the barrel is one of the largest wine barrels in the world (see a ranking there and also a list under Barrel).

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Tübingen Giant Barrel

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