CastleMemory: Vaxholms Fästning

Let's have a walk down memory lane to 
a Swedish holiday of my teenage years
and Vaxholms Fästning near Stockholm.


Currently popular posts...

CastleTalk: The Curious Case of the Thurn und Taxis Inheritance

Image
The death of Richard Fürst zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg earlier this week saw a surge in interest in my take on the (in)famous will of inheritance looming over the family. One point about the Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg inheritance that many seem to find especially curious is the fact that the late Prince Richard never actually owned his family's fortune but that it was instead passed from his father - who went missing during World War 2 - to a yet unborn grandson - who was born in 1969 - (or anyone else, really, who would inherit after Prince Richard). The German nobility, however, isn't short of interesting inheritance constructions - case in point: The Thurn und Taxis inheritance.
The Thurn und Taxis family isn't just famous for their fabulous wealth, estimated at around $ 2.5 billion today - even though Princess Gloria of Thurn und Taxis says it less than a billion - but also for their lifestyle to go along with it. In fact, Princess Gloria of Thurn und Taxis may si…
Read more

Schloss Lauenau

Image
Schloss Lauenau actually is one of three castles in the village of Lauenau near Hanover, the other two beingSchloss Meysenbug and Schloss Schwedesdorf. (And no, yours truly wasn't aware of this tiny village's castle density up until weeks ago which just goes to show that I'm a bad Castleholic because I live about half an hour away. Anyway...) Because of the many castles in Lauenau, this one is also oftentimes referred to as the Wasserburg, which simply describes what it is: A moated castle. Most famously, the Schloss was used to hold Sophie Dorothea of Hanover, wife of the future King George I of Great Britain, for three months in 1694 and 1695 before her trial over her affair with Count Philipp Christoph of Königsmarck. She was later moved to Schloss Ahlden where she lived for the last thirty years of her life becoming known as the 'Princess of Ahlden'. The history of Schloss Lauenau, however, goes back much further. The first castle on the same site was actually …
Read more

Royal Wedding in Hanover: The Guests (Part 1)

Image
Today in Hanover, Hereditary Prince Ernst-August of Hanover married Ekaterina Malysheva. Here are some of the guests, in no particular order... Margrave Max and Margravine Valerie of Baden, née Archduchess Valerie of Austria, with their son Prince Michael and his wife Princess Christina of Baden.  Count Friedrich of Ortenburg and his wife Countess Christine, née Baroness of Wangenheim, with their sons Max and Albert, who were two of the page boys. Count Karl of Solms-Laubach and I presume one of his daughters.  Andrés and Lauren Santo Domingo. Another picture of  Andrés and Lauren Santo Domingo.  Prince Georg-Friedrich of Prussia and his wife Princess Sophie, née Princess of Isenburg. Another picture of the couple. Prince Heinrich of Hanover, uncle of the groom, his wife Princess Thyra, née von Westernhagen, and their sons Prince Albert and Prince Julius.  Another picture of Prince Heinrich and Princess Thyra of Hanover. Prince Andreas and Princess Alexandra of Leiningen. She is a bo…
Read more