Confessions of a Castleholic

This is basically a live edition of Confessions of a Castleholic , I don't think I have ever shared a palace on here so quickly after visiting. But I fell in love - and I wanted to share that love. If you follow me on Instagram (note: you should as not to miss all the latest castle adventures ), you already know that I paid a visit to Schloss Wilhelmsthal near Kassel over the weekend. And it is a stunning Rococo dream come true! Long time followers of this blog may recall me visiting Schloss Wilhelmshöhe once upon nearly a decade ago. Schloss Wilhelmsthal - Höhe literally means "hill" while Thal is "valley" - is only a stone's throw away but somehow I never knew about it. Probably that's what keeps me castle hunting for more than decade now: There's still so much more to discover yet. Schloss Wilhelmsthal , now a museum, was once owned by the Landgraves of Hesse-Kassel. The surrounding estate was purchased by Landgravine Amalie Elisabeth, widow ...

Braving the rains in Fulda also brought yours truly to a second grandiose palace: The Stadtschloss Fulda located right in the city centre just across from the town's famous cathedral. This close proximity to the town's most important place of worship also already gives you a major clue to who the Stadtschloss owes its existence to. This Baroque palace was built by Johann Dientzenhofer as a residence for the Prince-Abbots and later Prince-Bishops of Fulda. The Baroque palace, however, wasn't the first residence of the clergymen who reigned Fulda located on the same site. Already during the 14th century, a castle was built on this piece of land. To reflect their new-found power and status, the Prince-Abbots later decided to demolished the fortified structure in favour of a more representative building. Between 1607 and 1612, the castle was converted into a four-winged Schloss . About half a century later, the palace was expanded once again. When Abbot Bernhard G...

Schloss Fasanerie is Hesse's self-proclaimed "most beautiful Baroque palace" - and while it has plenty of Baroque splendour and is undoubtedly beautiful, not knowing a terrible lot about its history in advance, I was slightly surprised by all the Classicist elements to be found inside the palace still owned by the Landgraves of Hesse. Upon learning more, however, this mixture of styles is simply a reflection of the Schloss 's varied history that began with the Prince Abbots of Fulda (though I thus do wonder whether I would really describe it as Hesse's most beautiful Baroque palace considering the other architectural elements). As you can see, it was a rainy day when I visited Fulda a few weeks ago, so please excuse the somewhat hastily taken images. The main challenge of the day was holding the umbrella while taking pictures and not getting the lens full of drops - or simply a Castleholic's triathlon. Luckily, I am a rain-experienced Castleholic and I...

Only a stone's throw away from Schloss Erbach , formerly owned and still inhabited by the Erbach-Erbach family, lies the residence of another branch of the family, Schloss Fürstenau . The Counts of Erbach-Fürstenau are the most senior line of the three branches of the House - and their castle reflects that. The origins of the Schloss  lie in the 14th century when it was built by the Electorate of Mainz for the protection of nearby Steinbach Abbey against the Electorate of the Palatinate. The castle was firstly mentioned in 1310, about seven years later Eberhard VI of Erbach is named as the vassal of the castle. Since the 15th century, the Erbachs are the actual owners of the castle. It was Count Georg III of Erbach (1548–1605) who transformed the stronghold into a Renaissance-style castle. During this time, the distinct decorative arch was added to the castle opening it up to today's courtyard. Large parts of the outer bailey, such as the home of the housekeeper i...

Deep in Germany's Odenwald mountain range lies a curious palace, Schloss Erbach . For one it is not only home to hunting curiosities but also the world's only ivory museum, an impressive antique collection you wouldn't necessarily expect in these lines of latitude as well as one of the most beautiful Gothic wooden altars there is. Plus, it got a bit of a curious recent history as only twelve years ago, the palace was purchased by the German state of Hesse from the Counts of Erbach-Erbach in quite a controversial and much discussed move. Unfortunately, it wasn't the most photographic palace when I visited thanks to roadworks going on as well as people putting up stands for a market the next day. But anyway, let's still have a closer look: The history of the Erbach family goes back all the way to at least the year 1148, when they were firstly mentioned. First records of a castles owned by them in the small German town of the same name date to the year 1303. The...

Strangest castle tour ever? The Residenzschloss Darmstadt without a doubt! Why? Well, I'm used to being the odd one out at a castle tour, someone in their mid-twenties grouped together with a bunch of people twice to thrice their age. Somehow at the former residence of the Grand Dukes of Hesse I found myself in the company of about twenty other twenty-somethings though. Some of them weren't German and so the guide asked us whether it would be alright if she gave the tour in English, which was very sweet and so we agreed. What we didn't know was that her English wasn't particularly good and she couldn't remember many words - and so this castle tour turned into a funny game of people shouting the English translations of German words into the room as quickly as possible to help her out. One thing is for sure though, I will never forget this castle tour and "Ludwig the Second Twoth". Darmstadt's residence palace was the home of the Landgraves a...