Confessions of a Castleholic

Schloss Biebrich , or Biebrich Palace, owes its existence to Count Georg August Samuel of Nassau-Idstein. Upon raising to the rank of a Prince in 1688, he decided to expand his domestic situation to better reflect his new status. He wished for a more impressive residence than the one he owned in Idstein. He first moved to Wiesbaden and later to Biebrich, where construction of a new palace started in 1701. Prince Georg August Samuel had already purchased the parcel of land on the Rhine river five years earlier but only built a pavilion there originally. The palace was completed in 1702 according to plans of Julius Ludwig Rothweil, although a second structure, identical to the first, was added in 1706. The first part of the palace, known as the West Pavilion, became the home of Georg August Samuel, while the eastern part was reserved for his wife née Princess Henriette Dorothea of Oettingen-Oettingen. In 1707, Baroque architect Johann Maximilian von Welsch linked the two pavilion...

These days the last sovereign ruler of the Duchy of Nassau is most famous - Well, as famous as a historical ruler of Luxembourg can be - for also being the first Grand Duke of Luxembourg from the Weilburg branch of the House of Nassau. Before ascending to the grand ducal throne at the age of 73 after the House of Orange-Nassau had died out in male line, Grand Duke Adolph (1817-1905) had ruled the Duchy of Nassau until it was annexed by Prussia in 1866. Since 1816, the capital of said Duchy of Nassau had been Wiesbaden and so the capital of what is now the German state of Hesse is also the location of a church Duke Adolph built in memory of his first wife, née Grand Duchess Elisabeth Mikhailovna of Russia. Only a year after their wedding in 1844, Duchess Elisabeth died shortly after giving birth to a stillborn daughter. After two years of mourning, Duke Adolph decided to build a church in memory his late wife and stillborn daughter. The Russian Orthodox Church of St Elizabeth, w...