The castles in Germany that I have seen pictures of are mostly, not all, but mostly, either to plain or to disneyprincess, i.e., I've never been too nuts about any of them. Lichtenstein Castle in no exception. It is disneyprincess, but I like it fairly well despite that.
Lichtenstein ("light colored stone") Castle is located in the Swabian Alb, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. There has been a castle on this site since 1200. The first was destroyed in 1311 during the Reichskriegs war and again by the city-state of Reutlingen in 1381. It was not rebuilt and fell into ruin.
King Frederick I of Württemberg built a hunting lodge there in 1802. By 1837 the land was owned by the king's nephew, Duke Wilhelm of Urach, Count of Württemberg. Now, Wilhelm was inspired by the fairytale novel Lichtenstein, written by Wilhelm Hauff, to rebuild the castle in 1840-1842. The Neo-Gothic castle was created by the architect Carl Alexander Heideloff.
Today the castle is still owned by the Dukes of Urach, but is open to visitors. The castle contains a large collection of historic weapons and armor.
I rather like the way the little castle seems to have just been carved out of the crag on which it sits. The lower rooms of the castle actually were carved directly into the rock, but the rest weren't. The tower was built more recently than the rest of the castle. I think it looks like it doesn't really match.
It does look like a lovely place, though, and I should like very much to see it.
5 comments:
I've always thought it looked like a neat place. There was a German exchange student in my ninth-grade Spanish class who told me about it.
Oops. I guess I forgot to identify myself. :)
~ A.K. ~
:D So it was you! I had really been wondering! Thank you very much for commenting! :)
Can you imagine waking up in the morning and looking out your window into that valley?!? I bet you would catch your breath every time!
-m
Yeah, M, I'll bet it would be awesome!
But, I'm kinda afraid of heights...
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