Confessions of a Castleholic

Above the town of Bad Berleburg lies a Schloss by the very same name (minus the 'Bad' part) that has been in the possession of the (ancestors of the) Sayn-Wittgenstein family for more than 700 years. It is actually one of the few castles with a similar age that have been owned by the same family for the entire time of its existence. The House of Sayn-Wittgenstein was created through the marriage of heiress Countess Adelheid of Wittgenstein and Count Salentin of Sayn-Homburg of the House of Sponheim in 1345. The two counties of Sayn and Wittgenstein, however, only merged some 40 years later when their son inherited them both. Later the family split into three main branches, the Houses of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn and Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein. Not too hard to guess, it is the first and genealogically most senior one of the three branches who owns Schloss Berleburg today. Originally co-owned by Count Siegfried I of Wittgenstein and Adolf I of...