A German Prince’s Palm Beach, Florida, Retreat Sells for $30.27 Million
The oceanfront house at the northern end of the affluent barrier island was a longtime vacation home of late Prince Albrecht of Oettingen-Spielberg.
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The 11th-generation heir of a German royal family has sold an oceanfront mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, for $30.27 million.
The 4,675-square-foot home on East Inlet Drive was built in 1960 and stands on 1.24 acres of oceanfront land, one lot away from the northern border of the Palm Beach barrier island.
It has six bedrooms, an ocean-facing veranda and pool deck and a direct path to the white-sand beachfront through lush greenery.
The property was purchased in 1987 by the late Prince Albrecht of Oettingen-Spielberg—10th in the line of a noble German dynasty that traces back to the 17th century—for $1.75 million, according to property records.
The German prince died in November, and the property was sold by his son and heir, Prince Franz-Albrecht of Oettingten-Spielberg, according to the deed recorded with Palm Beach County on Monday.
The buyer was a Florida-based LLC, managed by a law firm in East Hampton, New York, and represented by Island Realty PB.
“The new buyer is going to renovate the existing structure and breathe more life into it,” said listing agent Whitney McGurk, who represented the seller alongside Lisa Pulitzer, both of Brown Harris Stevens. “It was seldom used by the former owner.”
The aristocrat’s home was first listed for $45 million in 2024 and was reduced over the years as it cycled through different brokers and was also offered to rent. It was reduced for the final time to $32.9 million in February of this year.
Because of the property’s proximity to the Palm Beach Inlet, which divides the Palm Beach island from the barrier island to the north, it is close to great snorkelling and fishing along the jetty, as well as one of the best surf breaks in Palm Beach, according to McGurk.
“The house was always the ultimate beach house,” said McGurk. “Snorkelling, fishing, surfing, relaxing on the beach—it’s all right at your doorstep.”
The late owner’s son Prince Franz-Albrecht is the 11th-generation head of the family, as well as a hunter and conservationist married to model and socialite Baroness Cleo von Adelsheim.
His full name is Franz-Albrecht Alois Christian Ferdinand Maria Notger, Prince of Oettingen-Oettingen and Oettingen-Spielberg. He couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
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The imposing stone structures, with towers, turrets and a hot tub room, lord over the landscape near the mountain resort town of Sandpoint.
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Idaho is not a place that’s often associated with Medieval castles, but a pair have just hit the market for $6.25 million.
The imposing stone structures have towers, turrets, ramparts, arrow-slit windows and even a drawbridge, and might just be the most authentic-looking castles this side of the Atlantic.
“Who expects to see a castle like this in Idaho?” said listing agent Brenda Burk of Coldwell Banker Schneidmiller Realty, who brought the property to the market last week. They are, she said, “extremely unusual.”
Schweitzer Castle and Château de Melusine, as they’re known, stand within Schweitzer Mountain Resort in the Selkirk Mountains and overlook the nearby mountain resort town of Sandpoint. They take in panoramic views of Lake Pend Oreille, Idaho’s largest lake.
The pair of ski-in/ski-out homes each have three bedrooms, two bathrooms and three stories, Burk explained. They are “so authentic,” she said. “Every single stone was handlaid.”
Schweitzer Castle, she said, wasn’t built for “functionality,” but has been modernized and adapted and now has everything a 21st-century residence requires, along with a dungeon, which for some buyers may also be a requisite.
The chateau, meanwhile, has a hot tub room with mountain views, as well as a garage.
The property is being sold furnished, and will come complete with the hand-carved statues, armor, mounted swords, stained-glass windows and a host of antiques dating to the 15th and 16th centuries.
The owner, an antique collector who couldn’t be reached for comment, “is always looking for that hidden jewel and he found that here,” Burk said.
The next custodian is likely to stem from a varied pool of buyers, Burk said, that would include “the trophy-home buyer, someone who can say ‘I own a castle.’”
The property could also appeal to someone looking for a vacation home, or a multi-generational estate, and beyond that “there’s the dreamers,” she said. “We definitely try to market to people who like Medieval history or maybe do Renaissance fairs.”
The seller “really wants it to go to someone with the same passion.”
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