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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

CastleTalk #1: The (In)Famous Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg Will

July 16, 2015

Every once in a while, there are royal topics I'd like to express my opinion or give an explanation about but they are simply too complicated to be discussed in 140 characters over on Twitter, so I'm introducing CastleTalk here on Castles & Co. The first topic covered: The (in)famous Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg will that (allegedly) prevents Hereditary Prince Gustav zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg and Carina Axelsson from getting married. View image | gettyimages.com Sometimes yet regularly the question of why Hereditary Prince Gustav zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, owner of Schloss Berleburg , does not marry his long-time girlfriend Carina Axelsson pops up on royal forums and blogs. The alleged reason for them not marrying is that the nephew of Queen Margrethe of Denmark would lose his inheritance, including said castle, in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia if he married the US-American model of Mexican and Swedish descent based on his grandf

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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