Discovering the World's Most Splendorous Sights One Palace at a Time
CastleView: Lucy Worsley's Empire of the Tsars
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Photo: BBC 4
So, I was sick the other weekend* and I watched some documentaries and I found "Lucy Worsley's Empire of the Tsars" by BBC. I only know little about Romanov history, or rather some parts of it, but am in now way anywhere near to knowledgable, so the three one-hour parts of the documentary gave a nice overview.
Reinventing Russia
Age of Extremes
Road to Revolution
*Yep, I pretty much only get sick during the weekends, not the weeks - I'm every employer's dream.
Hi there! I watched a series today that was so bad it made be write the first blog post in one and a half years. Will I write more again in the future? I don't know, I guess we'll see. In the meantime, follow all my latest castle adventures over on Instagram . See you there! Empress Elisabeth of Austria, the immortal Sisi, has inspired the imagination of the people for more than a century now. Her life, her love, her tragedies, her death. Adored, free spirited and one of the original royal IT girls. A face that could launch a thousands ships, well, bring peace to two feuding nations by simply being her charming self. A woman that, 120 years after her death, can still draw crowds and be the foundation stone of what seems like half the tourist industry of several regions. (Okay, that might have been slightly exaggerated but have you ever been to Vienna and seen the souvenir shops?) So it's not too surprising that time and time again, cinema and TV productions have tried to ca...
You don't really notice the vibrant beauty of the Royal Alcázar of Seville when you first walk up to it. Thick walls and high towers guard the splendours of this royal palace complex dating back to the days of the Muslim rule over the Iberian peninsula, though most of its beautiful rooms were actually built - by Moorish workmen - for the Christian King, Pedro the Cruel of Castile, in the 1360's. Still, the style of the palace is heavily influenced by the Muslim rule of Spain that lasted from the conquest in 711 until 1492, when Granada was recaptured by Christian forces. The word Alcázar actually comes from the Arabic word for castle, al-qasr. And that's what it is. An extensive castle complex including some stunning gardens that actually double as the Water Gardens of Dorne in Game of Thrones. The Real Alcázar still houses the official residence of the King of Spain whenever he visits Seville thus making it the oldest royal residence in Europe in use. While use ...
Firstly mentioned as Widenkindigstein in 1187, the origins of Schloss Wittgenstein located in the south-Westphalian town of Bad Laasphe were owned by the House of Battenberg who tried to secure their holdings on the upper Lahn river with the help of the castle. In 1190 Count Werner I of Battenberg and Wittgenstein signed a contract with the Archbishop of Mainz, Konrad I of Wittelsbach, to sell the castle to the Archbishopric though it was agreed that the castle would be given back to Count Werner as a fiefdom. However, the Archbishop failed to pay the whole sum of money promised to the count and so the castle remained in his family's hands though not for long. On September 2nd, 1223, Count Werner I's three sons, Werner II, Widekind I and Hermann, sold the castle to the new Archbishop of Mainz, Siegfried II of Eppstein. In turn the sons received Wittgenstein castle back as a fiefdom. About 15 years later the historical House of Battenberg - which shouldn't be confu...