Confessions of a Castleholic

To be perfectly honest with you, where I come from, you don’t think very highly of Salzgitter. To be perfectly honest once again, I had previously only been there to go ice skating and also to the local lake once. The town of Salzgitter was only founded in 1942 and it looks like it; it’s quite grey, many 1950’s to 1970’s buildings, industry as well as more industry. I knew that the town, which actually does not have a real centre, was originally made up out of several villages but I had never been to one of the village-y villages. That changed this past weekend and I must say, I was pleasantly surprised. The village of choice was Salder, which most prominently features a castle by the same name - obviously as otherwise I wouldn’t tell you about it on this blog - but also lots of other nice old building. As so many castles around Hanover and Brunswick, Schloss Salder was once owned by the Guelph family but its history started out with another few (noble) families. In the be...

Not only for castle lovers, the Upper Middle Rhine Valley probably is one of Germany's most beautiful stretches. In 2002, the Rhine Gorge was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site due to a unique combination of geological, historical, cultural and industrial reasons. Over a distance of only 65 kilometres between the towns of Koblenz and Bingen, some 40 castles and fortresses are located on the hills above the Rhine River, one of them being the Burg Katz near the town of St. Goarshausen in Rhineland-Palatinate. Katz castle, located close to the legendary Loreley rock which marks the narrowest part of the Rhine River between Switzerland and the North Sea, owes is existence to the Count Wilhelm II of Katzenelnbogen. Built between 1360 and 1371, the castle was originally known as Burg Neukatzenelnbogen , which roughly translates to "new cat's elbow". However, it was soon colloquially called Katz (cat) castle in opposition to the nearby Burg Maus (mouse castle) own...

If you are into royal history, you probably know the name of today castle's from at least one person, Princess Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-(Wolfenbüttel-)Bevern, the wife of Friedrich the Great of Prussia. The Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel-Bevern had been created due to an inheritance dispute between Princess Elisabeth Christine's grandfather, Duke Ferdinand Albrecht I, and his brothers.  In 1667, Duke Ferdinand Albrecht I was given the castle of Bevern located near to the town of Holzminden not far from another castle already covered on this blog, Schloss Corvey . He - and later his son Ferdinand Albrecht II - were subsequently styled as princes of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel-Bevern. In 1735, after the death of his cousin Duke Ludwig Rudolf, Ferdinand Albrecht II inherited the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and thus the subordinate Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel-Bevern returned to the overarching Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. Schl...

Surrounded by water on three sides, the castle complex of the Baroque-style Schloss Söder consists of three buildings, the actual castle as well as two large outbuildings flanking it to either side. The Schloss owns its existence to Jobst Edmund of Brabeck whose ancestors had been given another castle situated on the same site by a relative also by the same name of Jobst Edmund, who occupied the position of the Prince-Bishop of Hildesheim during the late 17th century. The small previous castle had been enfeoffed by the Bishopric to the Bortfeld family until they died out in male-line in 1686 and four years later the Brabecks took over. In 1740 the younger Jobst Edmund of Brabeck had the old castle demolished and a new one built during the following two years. His descendant Baron (and later Count) Friedrich Moritz of Brabeck had the Schloss extensively altered and expanded according to his own needs. A well-known art connoisseur and collector, Baron Friedrich Moritz owned a co...

"Inspired by the dramatic topography of its site, the Hercules monument and water features of the Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe created by the Landgrave Karl of Hesse-Kassel from 1689 combine in an outstanding demonstration of man’s mastery over nature. The monumental display of rushing water from the Octagon crowned by the massive Hercules statue via the Vexing Grotto and Artichoke Basin with their hydro pneumatic acoustic effects, Felsensturz Waterfall and Giant’s Head Basin down the Baroque Cascade to Neptune’s Basin and on towards the crowning glory of the Grand Fountain, a 50 metre high geyser that was the tallest in the world when built in 1767, is focused along an east-west axis terminating in the centre of the city of Kassel. Complemented by the wild Romantic period waterfalls, rapids and cataracts created under Karl’s great-grandson the Elector Wilhelm I of Hesse, as part of the 18th century landscape in the lower part of the Bergpark , the whole composition is an outs...

The history of the domain of Schloss Derneburg dates back almost one thousand years. Originally built as a fortified castle, the main building became the manor house of Margrave Herman II of Winzenburg and his brother Heinrich, vassals of Count Burchard I of Locum, during the 12th century. However, Hermann feuded with Burchard and in 1130 arranged to have him murdered. Unfortunately for Hermann, his enemy was a close friend of Holy Roman Emperor Lothar III and the latter demanded that the Winzenburg family give up their properties as punishment. Schloss Derneburg , located in a Lower Saxon village by the same name, thus came into the hands of the Bishopric of Hildesheim, which was advised to open a religious sanctuary at the castle and thus the castle building remained in the hands of religious orders for the following 700 years. After the castle had been handed over to the Bishop of Hildesheim in 1143, the first Augustine nuns from the nearby abbey of Holle moved into the Schl...