Lichtenstein Castle, Lichtenstein, Germany

I love castles.  I love the history behind them, the good and the bad.  So I pretty much forced my anti-castle children into a weekend full of castle FUN!  Our second stop on our castle tour was Schloss Lichtenstein, which is also south of Stuttgart.

There's a small parking lot at the castle, and for a couple of Euros, you can park right at the entrance.  This knight was carved out of an old tree!

Be careful walking up the somewhat steep walkway up to Schloss Lichtenstein if it's the autumn because the wet leaves make it a bit slippery!

The previous structure wasn't even a castle. It was actually an old hunting lodge.  There had previously been a castle here since as far back as the 1100s, but in 1802, King Frederick I of Wurttemberg acquired the castle, tore it down and put up a hunting lodge in it's place.

The word "Lichtenstein" translates to "shining stone."  The stone used to build this castle was very light in color, hence the name.

In 1826, the author Wilhelm Hauff wrote a novel titled, "Lichtenstein" which inspired King Frederick's cousin Count Wilhelm von Urlach to purchase the property from the king in 1837.  He used the same foundation that had been put in back in 1388 and rebuilt in the Gothic Revival style as the Count was very into Medieval history.

This beautiful castle was completed in 1842 and became the home of the Dukes of Urach.  It's still owned by the Dukedom (the current Duke of Urach is Wilhelm Albert) but it's not the Duke's primary residence.  It stands precariously on the edge of the mountain about 820 feet above the valley below (2,680 feet above sea level.)

Lichtenstein Castle is one of the more physically beautiful castles of Germany.  It's often called "Neuschwanstein's Little Brother."

The outer bailey (not even kidding!) building was also built in the 1850s.  I know it's trite, but I love half timbers.

Try to time it with good weather, because the views are incredible out over the Echaz valley, overlooking the town of Lichtenstein.

Are they trying to look up under girls skirts here???  Creepy gnomes!

These buildings are a bit newer and were built around 1900.  They now house the apartments of the current Duke.

I don't know why, but I got a huge kick out of this!  A rusted (?) metal squirrel riding along the walls of Lichtenstein Castle!

This bridge was kind of terrifying. It actually slopes up.  It was kind of damp, but it has raised "stairs" to step on as you walk up so you don't slip.  And don't look down, especially to the right!

Todd overlooking the Echaz Valley.

The real stars of the Bailey Planet, ready to visit Lichtenstein Castle.

The real photographic gems come from the point that they call Luginsland.  You really get a sense of how this castle is literally built right into and onto the mountain.

This was the old lodge that was in place until its demolition by King Frederick I of Wurttemberg in 1839.  Notice the bridge to the right and the original foundation of the castle built in the late 1300s.

Photo by user: Andreas Praefcke - Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart, HStAS GU 99 Nr 399 a, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1243015

This panorama spreads from Wilhelmstower over to Luginsland, with Augustentower behind it.

Obligatory picture of us in front of Lichtenstein Castle.

Come on!  Isn't this one of the most beautiful and incredibly cool castles you've ever seen???

One more wider view, showing the late fall leaves.  It's honestly one of the most visually stunning castles I've seen.

Tiny cars in the valley on Route 313 look even smaller than ants!

Sharp cliffs define the edge of the Echaz Valley.  Look at that super sharp turn on Route 313 to the left.  We took that road when we left.  That was fun!

Augusta's tower is one of four named for the daughters of Count Wilhelm (the original Duke of Urach).  This one in particular houses the historical canons.

The canons were really neat - look in the far back at the tiny baby cannons!

After strolling the grounds, we were able to enter the actual castle for our German language tour.  Once again, photographs were not allowed in the castle on this tour, so this was the only picture I got from across the bridge.

So thanks to the World Wide Inter-Googles, I can show you a few pictures of the inside of the castle.  The first room you visit is the Armory, where you can see an actual part of the "light stone" that makes up the mountain that the castle sits on. (Also: another baby cannon!)

This room was known as the Ancestral Hall.  A cool story about this room is that there is a mirror with a bullet hole in it, which sits on the opposite wall from this ceramic fireplace.  At the end of World War II, the castle was shot at by us (the Allies) from down in the valley.  It went in through the window, off of this ceramic fireplace and planted itself into the mirror on the opposite wall.  They never bothered to remove it!

The Knights Hall is the largest room in the castle (and it's not very big at that!)  It's called Knights Hall for the ten Swabian knights that are carved into the wood panels on the walls.  You can see a picture of the original Duke Wilhelm on the left wall, when he was 26 years old.  Above him, there is a "golden grill" which guests would hear music played through during dinners and dances.  A band would not fit in the room with so many people, so they played upstairs and the music sent through this grill sounded as clear as if the band were in the room themselves.

The castle has a couple of other really neat rooms such as the Hunters Drinking Parlour (filled with a "sizable collection of historical drinking vessels.")  The Castle Chapel is also an impressive room, where the family would celebrate Sunday mass.  

Once we left with the tour group, you get a nice view of Luginsland and the Augustentower from the bridge.

Before we left, we took another trip over to Luginsland to take a few more pictures of this insanely beautiful castle.

Until next time, Lichtenstein Castle!

Hohenzollern Castle, Germany

We took a quick trip west to see some castles for the long Veteran's Day weekend!  I love castles, particularly shiny things that are housed in castles, even if no one else in my family loves them as much as I do!  Todd is the exception as he likes castles... but the kids are always whining when we go!

Hohenzollern is particularly special though!  It was built on top of Mount Hohenzollern and you can see it for miles away.  It's about an hour south of Stuttgart in the Swabian Alps, sitting approximately 2,805 feet above sea level, or if you're standing on the ground like I was, 768 feet above the town. You can choose to walk up to the top, park halfway and walk the rest of the way, or park in the parking lot and take the bus (for 3.30 Euro round trip) to the top.  My money was (literally) on the bus.

We caught the last of the fall foliage and even got some blue skies.  It wasn't even cold enough to need a coat, although I brought mine, never took it out of the car and somehow managed to LOSE my favorite coat that I have had since 2003. Ugh.

Hohenzollern was first mentioned in the early 11th century, although no one really knows anything about it with regard to shape and size.  It was destroyed in 1423 and rebuilt in 1454, bigger and better than ever.  During the Thirty Years War, it was captured by the Wurttembergs in 1634 and the Counts of Zollern gave up the castle to the Hapsburgs.  This started a long succession of (non Hohenzollern) owners until the Austrians left in the late 1700s.  After this, it fell into disrepair. 

It's kind of a swirly maze in the zwinger to get to the actual castle courtyard, which helps to deter enemies from invading. Of course, the prime location on top of the steep mountain also helps!

And when I say steep, I mean STEEP!

There's a couple of drawbridges along the way, and a couple of crazies posing on one of them.  Drawbridges just make this castle feel like a fortress!

In the beginning of the 1800s, the castle was in ruins, so the then-Crown Prince Frederick William IV of Prussia decided to build a new, third castle.  This one was constructed on the same footprint as the second castle.

The Hohenzollern family (dynasty?) is actually made up of two branches - the Brandenburg-Prussian (Protestant) Branch and the Swabian (Catholic) Branch.  The former owns 2/3 of the castle; the latter owns 1/3 of the castle.

Statues on lookout, scanning the valley for the enemy.

It's fall, so there weren't a ton of people there, which I really like.  We were able to walk right up, get in line and wait only about 15 minutes for the next tour, which happened to be in English (make sure you check the website for what time the English tours are!)

My Emperor and little Duke and Duchess waiting in line at Hohenzollern Castle.

Sometimes I can't tell the story better than the official website, so here is the history behind the split of the family (it's not a bad story and the families still get along to this day.) "At the end of the 12th century Count Frederick III of Zollern got married and attained the rank Burggrave of Nuremberg. Due to the geographical distance of the ancestral seats, his two sons divided the inheritance at the beginning of the 13th century. The family split into two still existing main lines of the Hohenzollern dynasty: the Swabian line and Franconian line, later Brandenburg-Prussian line which was given the rights of election of the Mark Brandenburg in 1411/15. This line created Prussian Kings in 1701, followed by the German Emperors in 1871."

I feel like everywhere I've ever lived has skipped over fall entirely.  Whether it was Florida which didn't achieve fall status until December, or Boston where fall lasts for about 1-2 weeks, I like having at least a handful of weekends that truly feel like autumn.

There are two churches on the grounds of Hohenzollern - one is Protestant (for the Prussian line) and one is Catholic (for the Swabian line.)  The Catholic St. Michael's church is the only building surviving from the second castle (although it was renovated in 1853 with the construction of the third castle.)  I think it's really cool that the two families seem to get along and there's a nod to both sides in many parts of this castle.

The history of the Swabian line after the split goes like this: "In 1534 the South German line was divided into Hohenzollern-Haigerloch-, Hechingen- and Sigmaringen lines. Since 1869 the Sigmaringen line still exists today. In 1623 the Swabian Hohenzollern dynasty was elevated to the rank of Princes. As a result of the 1848 revolution, they abdicated in favor of their powerful kinship in Berlin and from then on the ancestral seats appertained to Prussia. The following reconstruction of the ancestral Castle ruin was however carried out jointly and until today the Hohenzollern Castle is property of both family lines."

Obviously, like many castles in Europe, you can't take pictures in the castle. But you can steal them from the internet!  You start the tour in the Ancestral Hall (not shown above) where the elaborately painted family tree covers the walls.  The family tree of the post-split Prussian line is the only line included in here.  After the current heir on the Prussian line has a child, there is no longer room for any more descendants on the walls because it's completely full!  In this room, you have to put on little slippers over your shoes so as not to mess up the floors.  You then walk into the impressive Counts Hall, which is where they still hold dinners and functions today.  The chandeliers you see here are CRAZY cool.  They light the room with real candles, and require two incredibly strong men to go into the attic to lower and raise them.  They insert candles based on how long they expect a dinner party to last.  If the candles are expected to burn out during the party, then sorry folks. Everyone has to go.

The Blue Salon was one of my favorites (mostly since blue is one of my two favorite colors.)  This was the room that the women retreated to when the men had meetings and did activities without them.  The wallpaper in here is painted in real gold!  (Picture: ©DZT/Generalverwaltung des vormals Preussischen Königshauses (Ernst Wrba)

The highlight of the tour is the crown of Emperor Wilhelm II.  This is also known as the Hohenzollern crown, and was made in 1888.  What you see here are 142 rose cut diamonds, 18 larger round diamonds, 8 teardrop pearls and a big old sapphire.  Interestingly, Kaiser Wilhelm II never wore this crown (not officially, anyway.) 

After the tour concluded, we went down into the casemates (which I literally can't find any pictures from... how does one forget to take pictures!?)  The low ceiling, bomb proof casemates have been there since the time of the second castle, and you can read the story of the Ghost of the White Lady.  Legend has it that the count Albrecht von Hohenzollern had asked a younger widow to marry him, but knowing his parents were against the marriage, he told her they would marry "if it were not for four eyes between us."  She had taken this to mean that her two children from her previous marriage were opposed to this marriage, so she killed her own children.  The count was obviously like, "That's psycho.  Engagement over."  She moved to Rome searching for forgiveness, going crazy over her actions.  Her ghost now apparently haunts the castle!

If you're lucky enough to visit the castle on a beautiful day, you can see for miles from the mountain.

The town of Hechingen sits right below Hohenzollern Castle, split by Route 27.

Only three Kaisers served as Emperors of Prussia:  Wilhelm I (1861-1888), his son Frederick III (who, much like Prince Charles had a parent who lived into their 90s and refused to abdicate.  Frederick had cancer and only reigned for 99 days in 1888); and Wilhelm II (1888 until his forced abdication on November 9, 1918, which marked the end of the Empire and the beginning of the German Republic.)

The last (and really only) person to actually consider the castle home was the Crown Prince Wilhelm, the son of Kaiser Wilhelm II.  And he only lived there because he was on lock down at the end of the war!

An earthquake (yes, an earthquake!) registering 5.7 on the Richter scale damaged the castle in 1978 and it was under repair until the 1990s!

The views are beautiful.  If it was another week or two earlier, the leaves would have been at peak.

The sun is lower on the horizon already.  But isn't it beautiful?

Germany is still so green, even when the leaves are all changing.  It kind of reminds me of Ireland.

The current Prince of Prussia is Prince George, and when he and Princess Sophie (and their four children) are in town, they do stay here.  With views like this, you can't blame them!

One more stunning view.  Absolutely gorgeous!

After the tour, we walked around the grounds, and then we stopped at the Biergarten for some ice cream and ... beer!

You were waiting for it.  Admit it.  You were.

He's cute. I think I'll keep him.

Todd always takes a nice panorama of the places we visit!  We snapped one more before heading down to the bus.

The tunnel on the way out was quiet and creepy.

Bis Später, Burg Hohenzollern!