Confessions of a Castleholic

You have heard of Schloss Ludwigsburg ?! Yeah, umm, no, we are not talking about that one today but instead a much lesser known Schloss Ludwigsburg , the one in Rudolstadt. Apart from being virtually unknown, it is also an incredibly hard place to photograph because it is located on narrow street with walls all around it and no way to access (at least on a holiday). Today, Schloss Ludwigsburg is the seat of the Thuringian Court of Auditors though its origins lie as a residence of the extended family of the Prince of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt. The three-winged Baroque palace was built between 1734 and 1741 in the valley below the much better known yet still not really famous  Schloss Heidecksburg . The plans for the new city palace were drawn up by Johann Jakob Rousseau and carried out by Johann David Steingruber. Schloss Ludwigsburg served as the residence of Prince Ludwig Günther, the brother of Friedrich Anton and uncle of Johann Friedrich of Schwarzburg-Rudolsta...

When the monarchy in Germany ended about a century ago, there wasn't just a German Emperor but about two dozen states making up that Empire all with their own, oftentimes royal or noble rulers. One of the most obscure of those states, at least to yours truly, was the Principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt. But even though it was a tiny state nestled away in the Thuringian woods, it did have a very impressive castle to boast: Schloss Heidecksburg - or simply "the Heidecksburg" (because Burg = castle). Originally, this Castleholic stumbled over this beauty of a palace in a stunning German coffee-table book called " Pracht und Idylle " and I simply knew I one day had to visit. Little did I realise at the time, that my visit would come sooner than expected. When I planned my castle hunting adventure to Coburg earlier this year, I noticed that Rudolstadt wasn't actually too far off my route to the much more famous and castle-rich Coburg. And I wasn...

The Principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt may just be the least known of all the German states that, more than a century ago, made up the Kaiserreich,  even though it did exist up until the very end when the monarchies in Germany were abolished in 1918. It had its own Prince, Günther Victor was his name, and naturally also its own castles. While all fairly little known, Schloss Heidecksburg may just be one of the ultimate insider's tips when it comes to German castles (and I'll promise you, we will get it to it here at Castleholic very soon). But first, let's have a look at Jagdschloss Paulinzella . The nearby hunting lodge of the Princes of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt is located right next to the ruins of the much better known Paulinzella Abbey, one of the most important Romanesque structures in Germany.  Unfortunately, fairly little seems to be known about the history of the Renaissance- style Jagdschloss (at least online as I did not visit the museum about the mo...