Confessions of a Castleholic

The Great Hall of Schloss Nymphenburg They came to power during the 12th century in the days of Holy Roman Emperor Friedrich I Barbarossa - and on November 7, 1918, their head of the family was the first German King forced to abdicate. But in the end, the former Royal Family of Bavaria may just have gotten the best deals of all the formerly reigning families in Germany. You see, the German nobility is full of curious inheritance cases like the Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg's or the Thurn und Taxis' . In addition to these internal family matters, there are also some interesting constructions between former German reigning family and the German state - or one of its federal states. Case in point: The  Wittelsbacher Ausgleichsfonds . It was established as a public foundation in 1923 within the framework of the apportionment of assets and liabilities between the Free State of Bavaria and their former royal family, the Wittelsbachs. Five years prior, in 1918, the monarchi...

To say that Coburg has an abundance of castles and palaces may just be the understatement of the century, we have covered more than half a dozen of them on this blog alone in the past couple of months. One still missing? The one dubbed "the Crown of Franconia", the city's oldest castle, Veste Coburg . Towering high above the city and the surrounding land, the Veste was firstly mentioned in 1056 making its origins almost a thousand years old. It was in the year 1353, that Coburg fell to Margrave Friedrich of Meissen of the House of Wettin, who continued to own Veste Coburg until the end of the monarchy in 1918. The oldest still-existing part of the Veste is the Blauer Turm , or Blue Tower, dating back to 1230. At the time, the town was controlled by the Dukes of Merania. During the early 15th century, a triple contravallation was introduced to guard the fortress. Large parts of the castle's early structures were destroyed during two fires towards the end of...

Have you ever stumbled over a castle without meaning to? That's pretty much the story of Schoss Ahorn near Coburg and yours truly. I'm still not sure whether my navigation system simply got confused on the way from Schloss Hohenstein to Schloss Callenberg or if it has picked up on my love for castles instead and wanted to do me a favour. Because Schloss Ahorn is not along the most direct route between those two places but still it is where the GPS led me to go past - and after spotting this castle on the side of the road, I couldn't help but make a quick stop. Schloss Ahorn is located in a small village by the same name. While today's castle dates back to the 16th and 17th centuries, previous buildings located on the same site go back as early as the 11th century. It was actually part of the dowry of the Queen of Poland, born Richeza of Lotharingia. She inherited the estate from her own mother, Matilda, one of the daughters of Holy Roman Emperor Otto II and...

Before I headed to Coburg  early this summer to discover the city's plentiful architectural highlights, I asked around on Instagram for any tips regarding lesser known places in its vicinity to discover. By way of Eva , who runs  the wonderful German-language site Burgdame about her (castle) travels and more, came the recommendation of Schloss Hohenstein - and what a great one it was! Going to Schloss Hohenstein may feel like heading to the end of the world, but nestled away in the hills and woods near Coburg you will find a true fairytale of a castle. Firstly mentioned in 1306, Schloss Hohenstein came into the hands of the Lichtensteins, a Franconian noble family not to be confused with the Liechtensteins with an extra "E" of the Principality, around 150 years later. The preceding building located on the same hill, however, was destroyed during the course of the German Peasants' War of 1525. The uninhabitable remnants of the castle were rebuilt abo...

Schloss Callenberg is the third of the four famous Coburg castles we are covering here on Confessions of a Castleholic , after Schloss Ehrenburg and Schloss Rosenau . While all of them were once the property of the Dukes of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Schloss Callenberg is the last of the castle to be owned (or rather owned again) by the family that was once perhaps even more famous for their marriage alliances than for their little Dukedom located on the edge of the Thuringian Forest.  While firstly mentioned in the 13th century as the property of a member of the Chalwinberch family, the castle was later sold to the Bishopric of Würzburg and given as a fiefdom to the Counts of Henneberg and Knights of Sternberg at different points in history. It was during the course of the 16th century, that Schloss Callenberg came into the possession of the Dukes of Saxe-Coburg. It was Duke Johann Casimir who acquired the castle following the death of the last male heir of the St...

Continuing our run of Coburg's plentiful palaces in the past couple of weeks is the Bürglass-Schlösschen . ( Schlösschen meaning little palace though while not massive in size, nobody ever had to squeeze in to fit, I'm pretty certain.) It most famously served as the residence of Tsar Ferdinand I of Bulgaria during his years of exile until his death in 1948 though its connection with the Saxe-Coburg and Gotha family goes back a few centuries further.  After previous buildings on the same site had been and had not been owned by the family at different points in time, Prince Friedrich Josias of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld purchased the small estate near the ducal residence Schloss Ehrenburg in 1794. Friedrich Josias had been a general in the Austrian army but resigned following a dispute with Austrian policymakers and retired to Coburg. After only ten months of construction, he was able to move into his new residence. After Friedrich Josias' death in 1815, his palace cam...

Never heard of Schloss Hohenfels in Coburg? You are excused, neither had I before doing some research for my latest castle adventure to the residential town of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. And you would still be excused if you hadn't heard of it even if you have visited as well for the Schloss is  located rather on the outskirts of the city and also today a school. Its origins are very royal though. In 1837, Duke Ernst Alexander of Württemberg, younger brother of Duchess Marie of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, wife of Ernst II, commissioned architect Balthasar Harres, a student of Karl Friedrich Schinkel, to draw up plans for a residential palace for himself. After Harres left Coburg a year later, it was Vincenz Fischer-Birnbaum who finished the construction on the Classicist Schloss . Duke Ernst Alexander later fell in love and married opera singer Natalie Eschborn a.k.a. Frassini a.k.a. Baroness of Grünhof. His brother-in-law Duke Ernst II had persuaded her to come and...

Palais Edinburgh ? You would be excused for thinking that you need to travel somewhere in the United Kingdom, particularly Scotland, to find a palace with such a name. However, this little gem is actually to be found in Germany - or Coburg, to be more specific. Coburg, of course, is well connected to the British royal family due to a couple of 19th century marriages, most famously that of Queen Victoria and Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. It is also through one of their sons that this little palace received its name though its origins go back a little bit further. It was Baron Karl August of Wangenheim who built the palace between 1845 and 1846 facing the ducal residence Schloss Ehrenburg . The Baron of Wangenheim, however, could only enjoy his new residence, at the time known as Palais Wangenheim or ( Wangenheimsches Palais ), for a handful of years as he passed in 1850.  In 1865, Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, the second son of Victoria and Albert and heir to his...

There is a first time for everything: And of course Schloss Ehrenburg obviously wasn't my first time visiting a castle but it was first time I scored private castle tour. Where exactly? In Coburg at 9am on a weekday - turns out getting up early does pay off sometimes (and this Castleholic certainly is no natural morning person)! And the best thing? I think Schloss Ehrenburg would have even been the Coburg castle I had picked for a private castle tour if I would have had the choice, I just love it and its lovely mixture of Baroque and Empire/Classicist styles, two of my favourites. Sadly, you aren't allowed to take pictures of the interior - I'll never figure out in which Bavaria-based palaces you are (not) allowed to - and so a gazillion pictures of the exterior of the former residence of the Dukes of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha will need to do.  Schloss Ehrenburg was built starting in 1543 on the basis of a former Franciscan monastery under Duke Johann-Ernst of Saxe-C...