Confessions of a Castleholic

Castle visits can be fun, majestic, educational - and sometimes even very moving. It's been almost a year since I visited the Wewelsburg near Paderborn. Every time I have since wanted to write about this place, I never knew what to say for this castle is the place that caused the most ambivalent feelings within this Castleholic. Many castles and palaces in Germany and elsewhere have very varied history. Within Germany it is also a common part of the history of many castles that there is a connection to the darkest days of German history, the Third Reich. But the Wewelsburg - or rather what people made of it - took it to the next level.  And I will admit: Suddenly I stood there during my visit and had tears in my eyes... It was towards the end of my tour of the Wewelsburg, a Renaissance-style castle of the Prince-Bishops of Paderborn turned SS cult-site during the Third Reich, that my ambivalent feelings about this place came to light. I was looking at a mosaic made of gla...

This Castleholic never ceases to learn... While I have written a post with no less than 13 pro castle hunting tips , I learned another one the other week: If possible do not visit a castle that is also a registrar's office for civil weddings on a Saturday morning when it actually serves as a place to tie the knot. Because when I visited Schloss Neuhaus in Paderborn, that is exactly what happened to me and I saw no less than five or six bridal couples. So it's a bit of a wonder I managed to actually sneak a few pictures without not one but several bridal couple in them. It also meant that I could not actually visit all of the rooms usually open to the public. While today a school, a museum and, obviously, a  registrar's office, Schloss Neuhaus was once the residence of the Prince-Bishops of Paderborn with its history going back all the way to the year  1257 when the first fortified house was erected there just outside of the city of Paderborn. It was Bishop Heinri...

Confession of a Castleholic: I like castles more than castle ruins. So when Burgdame - visit her blog here - recommended to me to pay a visit to the ruins of Burg Ringelstein in Büren-Harth, I was a little hesitant as it was slightly out of the way of my latest castle adventure. But guess what happened? I loved it, it was a wonderful little piece of quiet during an otherwise very busy day including some eight other castles - more on all of them to come in the coming weeks, so make sure to stay tuned! The plans to build a castle on a mountain high above the Alme valley was firstly mentioned in 1383 though it isn't certain whether it was an entirely new castle or the reconstruction of a yet older, destroyed one of the same site. It was the Lords of Büren who were tasked with the construction of the new Burg to guard the outskirts of the Archbishopric of Cologne. Rather shortly after its completion, the castle was pledged to the Scharfenberg line of the House of Padberg un...