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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...

Schloss Hohenstein

October 06, 2019

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...

CastleTalk: The Curious Case of the Thurn und Taxis Inheritance

March 19, 2017

The death of Richard Fürst zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg earlier this week saw a surge in interest in my take on the (in)famous will of inheritance looming over the family . One point about the Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg inheritance that many seem to find especially curious is the fact that the late Prince Richard never actually owned his family's fortune but that it was instead passed from his father - who went missing during World War 2 - to a yet unborn grandson - who was born in 1969 - (or anyone else, really, who would inherit after Prince Richard). The German nobility, however, isn't short of interesting inheritance constructions - case in point: The Thurn und Taxis inheritance. Princess Gloria and Prince Johannes of Thurn und Taxis The Thurn und Taxis family isn't just famous for their fabulous wealth, estimated at around $ 2.5 billion today - even though Princess Gloria of Thurn und Taxis says it less than a billion - but also for their lifestyle to go a...

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