CastleMemory: Burg Königstein

Let's have a walk down memory lane to the year 2013
and a visit to Burg Königstein in the Taunus region of Germany.

Currently popular posts...

Neues Fürstliches Palais (Bückeburg)

Image
When we think of castles, we tend to think of museums or noble homes - but some of them are used in rather modern way: From court buildings to hotels or - as in today's case - a school. The  Neues Fürstliches Palais (New Princely Palace), also simply known as Palais or Herminen-Palais for its first resident, in Bückeburg as been home to a vocational college for close to 60 years now. It's origins are very princely though. Bückeburg was, of course, the capital of the Principality of Schaumburg-Lippe, one of the smallest states of German Empire, and remains the home of the Schaumburg-Lippe family to this day. Their main residence is Schloss Bückeburg , a few minutes walk away from the Neues Palais . Like rulers tend to do at some point in their life, Prince Adolf I Georg wished for a new additional palace for him and his family. In 1882, he commissioned architect Hermann Schaedtler to draw up plans for a Neues Palais . Likely many changes were made to the plans for th...
Read more

The (In)Famous Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg Will, Round 3: When There Is An Estate Worth Half a Billion Up For Grabs, That's Apparently Where Cordial Family Relations End

Image
Schloss Berleburg , the main residence of the Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg family ...at least here on Confessions of a Castleholic , I'm sure it has been more rounds for the family. Just the other week I said over on Twitter that deposed royal families without their family disputes would only be half the fun - and one of the most intriguing family disputes within the German nobility has reared is ugly head again as of late: The inheritance dispute within the Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg family. It is based on a will that was drawn up during the days of the Third Reich and includes some, well, racist, to say the least, stipulations. Yours truly still has a hard time to understand that someone would actually try to enforce those... Then again, there is an estate said to be worth about a half of a billion euros up for grabs - and that's probably where most friendships (or cordial family relations) end. (To catch up: What is this will? What is the dispute about? ) To ...
Read more

Schloss Callenberg

Image
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...
Read more