Confessions of a Castleholic

Scandalous things are happening in Castleholic land: Turns out that while I have been to Salzburg a handful of times, I had never even considered visiting the Residenz for some strange reason. Inexplicable. The Festung, ja . Mirabell, ja . But it took my until last summer to finally get to the residential palace of the Prince-Archbishops of Salzburg. And while this is a visually fairly uninteresting post - photos are not allowed to be taken inside the Residenz  and thus I added a few of the Cathedral it sits next to - you have to trust me that it is a surprising beauty! The Salzburger Residenz lies in the heart of the historic district and was once the Baroque power centre of the region nestled between Habsburg Austria and Wittelsbach-ruled Bavaria. The first mention of the Residence dates back to the year 1232. However, that first residential palace was later demolished under Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau (1587–1612) in favour of a late-Renaissance style new b...

Towering high above the town of Salzburg is the Festung Hohensalzburg . The fortress is one of Austria's most visited tourist destinations, actually the most visited outside of Vienna, and it's not hard to guess why. Built at the behest of the Prince-Archbishops of Salzburg with a length of 250 metres and a width of 150 metres, it is one of the largest medieval castles in Europe and spans a history of almost 1000 years. It was in the year 1077 that Archbishop Gebhard von Helfenstein commanded the construction of the fortress overlooking the Salzach river and the surrounding valley on four sides. It is likely that a wooden fortification had already been situated on the hill previously. During the following years, decades and centuries, his successors developed and expanded the Festung to represent and protect their ever-growing powers that also included the secular rule over the Prince-Archbishopric. Archbishop Konrad I (1106-1147) added a keep and also during the 12th an...

Above the Kaiservilla in the hilly park surrounding the summer residence of Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria and his wife Elisabeth, lies a little palace by the name of Marmorschlössl . It was the hideaway of the Empress, better known as Sisi, when in Bad Ischl. (And there's no better after-Christmas treat considering my annual Christmas obsession with the Sissi movies .) While Schlössl is the minimisation of Schloss , Marmor (marble) comes from the material used called Untersberger Marmor , though it was actually a form of limestone.  It was at Bad Ischl were both Franz Joseph and Elisabeth enjoyed spending time. Sisi, who otherwise despised her life as an Empress, felt reminded of her childhood at Schloss Possenhofen in Bavaria, and could go hiking and riding as much as she liked. The Kaiservilla had been a gift by the Emperor's mother and the couple spent almost every summer in the Salt Chamber region near Salzburg. The Imperial Villa is surrounded by a large Englis...

Today I am going to tell you a story. The story of an eleven-year-old girl who went to Schloss Possenhofen in Bavaria with her parents and was utterly disappointed. Why? Because it looked nothing like she had imagined. The young girl grew up religiously watching the "Sissi" movies for every Christmas since she can remember. However, the real life Possenhofen looked nothing like the movie version. That was, of course, because the movies weren't filmed at the actual childhood home of Empress Elisabeth of Austria. Instead, a certain Schloss Fuschl was chosen as the director thought it looked much more romantic and fairytale-like. Probably not very surprisingly, the girl in this story is actually me - and more than 15 years on I actually managed to see my real Possenhofen better known as  Schloss Fuschl in Austria's Salzkammergut region. It was on the way back from the Kaiservilla in Bad Ischl to Bavaria that we made a quick stop nearby to catch a glimpse of ...

"Earthly heaven" - that's how Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria described his summer holidays in Bad Ischl. His own fate was inevitably connected the small spa town in the Austrian Salt Chamber region ( Salzkammergut ). After having suffered five miscarriages during the first few years of her marriage, his mother, Archduchess Sophie, went to Bad Ischl to drink the waters who were thought to increase fertility. She bore five sons who were thus sometimes nicknamed "the salt princes". It was also in Bad Ischl that the Emperor fell in love with his cousin and future wife Elisabeth, better known as Sisi. The couple spent almost every following summer at their home in the Salzkammergut : The Kaiservilla  in Bad Ischl. The large mansion was gifted to the couple as a wedding present by the Emperor's mother. In 1853 after their engagement, Archduchess Sophie had purchased it from physician Eduard Mastalier. He, in turn, had bought it from a notary called Jose...

Confession of the day: I still haven't covered all the royal sights I visited in Vienna two years ago. Time to catch up... The Sommerpalais or Alserbachpalais is the least known of all the Viennese palaces owned by the Princely Family of Liechtenstein, who were one of the most important noble families of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Situated just across the gardens from the Gartenpalais in the 9th Viennese of Alsergrund in the Rossau, not too much is (publicly) known about this 'summer palace'. The park situated between the Gartenpalais and the Sommerpalais dates back to the year 1687 when it was laid out as the first pleasure garden after the end of the siege of Vienna by the Turks. Now considered the city's oldest palace garden still in existence, both the park and a Baroque-style pleasure palace were designed by Austrian architect Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach at the behest of Prince Hans-Adam I of Liechtenstein. To realise his plans, the Fürst  had bou...

Well, on two continents... Let's play favourites again - this time with cities. Here are the five I like best for various reasons which I'll try to explain a little. Obviously, I can only speak of those cities I have visited yet. So if any are missing that you think everyone should see, leave me a comment below. My bucket list may already be more than 100 places long but can it ever be long enough? Sydney, Australia Where shall I begin? While some places were hard to pick, Sydney was a very obvious choice for me. After all this is the city where I spent what I still consider the time of my life. After school I lived and travelled in Australia for a year with Sydney being my base. But it wasn't just that it was the best and most carefree time of my life: Over the year, I simply fell in love with the city, its style, art and culture and how beautifully it is situated.   Hamburg, Germany If you are a long-time reader of Confessions of a Castleholic, you will al...

How time flies! It's been a year since I visited Vienna and while it rained for almost a week straight, it still remains one of my favourite holidays ever. Vienna simply is a city of my kind, full of history, architecture and culture. There are so many things to do and see, that one week (with trips to Bratislava and west of Vienna ) is in no way sufficient to see all of it. Still, here are my five favourite royal things to do and see in Vienna - in no particular order as that would just be cruel! Gartenpalais Liechtenstein Vienna can be full of tourists and some of its most famous attractions *cough* Schloss Schönbrunn *cough* can even be overrun by tourists. And so the Gartenpalais Liechtenstein was a breath of fresh air. The tours aren't exactly cheap but they were also some of the best I ever had! They started with a glass of bubbly, continued with amazing art and had some of the most knowledgeable guides I ever experienced. (And yes, I enjoyed this one even a ...

Let's pause my Munich adventures for one of the most famous palaces of them all: Schloss Schönbrunn . Yes, shame one me - I haven't yet covered all the royal sights I saw during my trip to Vienna in May of last year (and even greater shame, not all castles I visited before that). I could vow to better myself but you know, I know myself, so let's just see how I roll in the coming weeks... Schloss Schönbrunn , the summer residence of the Habsburg family, is one of Vienna's and all of Austria's most famous sights. Last year alone, 3.6 million people visit the palace in the 13th district Hietzing. 3.6 million visitors also means that it is quite a crowded place, even on a rainy day, and you don't really walk through the first few rooms of the palace tour but you are instead pushed as part of a bulk. But good news, it does get better. After all there are 1,441 rooms in the Baroque palace though you only get to see about 40 of them.  Despite what its Baroq...