Confessions of a Castleholic

From the Prussian palaces of Potsdam to plentiful noble homes scattered all around the state, we have probably covered dozens and a dozen more of castles located in Brandenburg, the German state surrounding Berlin. (Find all of them here .) But still, there are a gazillion more to discover, so here are ten castles you have probably never heard of. Most of them actually aren't open to the public yet many of them have surrounding parks you can stroll through. How I visit them? These sorts of castles usually aren't the main destination of my days out castle hunting. I either see them on the way to or back from places open to the public or I try to include them in a hike. Schloss Wiesenburg Schloss Wiesenburg may just be the most idyllically located of all idyllically located castles on this list. Looking over a large park, its origins date back to the Middle Ages when a fortified castle was located on the same site. The oldest parts of today's Renaissance-style  Schloss dat...

When you think of the Louvre, you probably think of paintings and art - but it is also home to another kind of incredible craftsmanship: The French Crown Jewels. The Palais du Louvre , of course, served as a royal residence between the 14th and 18th centuries. And it is here in the  Galerie d’Apollon , a work of art in itself, where you can find a variety of tiaras and other bejeweled objects. The room owes its existence to King Louis XIV, who famously identified himself with the sun god Apollo. This gallery was one of his first building projects to represent that image. To create this masterpiece of architectural decoration, he summoned the greatest painters, gilders and sculptors of the day, who later also worked on the Hall of Mirrors at the Château de Versailles .  But the focus of today's article shall be on all that glitters.   Personally, I always found royal jewellery a fascinating way to learn about history as oftentimes you can trace them through various royal f...

* This post is part of a paid partnership with the cities of Weissenfels, Merseburg and Zeitz. * Weissenfels, deep in the heart of Saxony-Anhalt, is a city full of contradictions. Old vs. new, fallen into ruins vs. beautifully restored. All of this is represented most in the castle towering high above in the town south-west of Leipzig: Schloss Neu-Augustusburg . While half of it, at least from the exterior, shines in new splendour, the other half is falling into ruins. It is a fascinating contrast you will find all over this historically rich little town. Once the residence of the Duchy of Saxe-Weissenfels, it later became the number one shoe-manufacturing city of the German Democratic Republic. As so many places, the aftermath of unification left a lasting mark on Weissenfels with many especially young people moving away to find work elsewhere, and houses left empty. But you will find as many rays of hope here, so let's delve deeper into the things not to miss when visiting Weisse...

* This post is part of a paid partnership with the cities of Weissenfels, Merseburg and Zeitz. * Have you heard of Merseburg? This medieval German town is situated on the banks of the river Saale approximately 30 kilometres west of Leipzig. It boasts a great historical significance. Firstly mentioned in 850, it became the seat of the Bishop of Merseburg in 968 and remained so until the Reformation. During the Early and High Middle Ages, the town once was the most important Kaiserpfalz , roughly translated as imperial residence, in the East of the Holy Roman Empire for the ever-travelling ruler. While its importance somewhat faded when the modern age rolled around, it once again became the home of a ruler between 1657 to 1738 when Merseburg was the residence of the Dukes of Saxe-Merseburg, a secundogeniture of the Albertine line of the House of Wettin. Sounds interesting? Here are nine recommendations what to do and see when visiting Merseburg. Start at Schloss Merseburg , of c...

* This post is part of a paid partnership with the cities of Weissenfels, Merseburg and Zeitz. * Do you know those "It's on my list"-places? Towns or places where you have been wanting to visit for a while but haven’t gotten around to?! Recently I scratched one of those places off my imaginary list: Zeitz . Once upon a couple of centuries ago - between 1656 and 1718 to be precise - this little town was the capital of a small German state and secundogeniture of the Albertine line of the House of Wettin, the Duchy of Saxe-Zeitz. As any self-respecting residential town Zeitz, of course, boasts a palace: Schloss Moritzburg (not to be confused with the probably more famous Schloss Moritzburg near Dresden ). But let's not get ahead of ourselves and start my visit in chronological order. After arriving in Zeitz, I started my tour of discovery of the town in the old market square , known as Altmarkt in German. Zeitz's history actually goes back to the Middle Ages. Firs...

We have covered plenty of Prussian palaces here on Confessions of a Castleholic , we even have a post on how many Prussian palaces you can see in a day. ( It's five, in case you wondered. ) But today, we are going to have a look at two pretty unknown palaces of the Hohenzollern family that once ruled as German Emperors: Schloss Paretz and Schloss Caputh . Never heard of them? Don't worry, neither had I before I moved to Berlin and got myself an annual ticket to the Prussian palaces surrounding the German capital. The fact that we know fairly little about them probably has as much to do with their location as well as their less ornate decoration. Schloss Caputh "Less ornate?", you may ask. "But that's a Baroque palace!" And right you are. But as it is an early example of Baroque architecture in this region,  Schloss Caputh  may not compare to the more lavishly decorated Rococo palaces of nearby Park Sanssouci in many peoples eyes. The palace located on ...