Best German Castles
 

Of all the castles in the Black Forest and Bavaria, which were your favorites and why?

We would like to see at least one, maybe two.
Thanks!

Linderhof was my favorite. Beautiful grounds and castle.

We liked the out-of-the-ordinary Linderhof, created in Louis XIV rococo style (the gold and white bedroom is stunning), and the park incorporates beautiful fountains. In addition to the palace are a small but cherce Moorish kiosk with a peacock throne and a large grotto containing a lake on which King Ludwig II would ride in a swan boat to Wagnerian music.

Ludwig's private dining room had a self-service design to allow the king to dine completely alone: no servants.

wnab1g- Though Ludwig's castles are awesome, my 2 favorites are located between the Black Forest and Bavaria in Swabia. My number 1 is Schloss Hohenzollern. It is the family home of the once Kaiser - it is a "real" castle, very impossing, and in a magnificent setting. An excellent web site- "www.preussen.de/en/today.html". Number 2 is Lichtenstein Castle which is relatively close to Hohenzollern. It is much smaller and more intimate. It is perched on a rocky outcroping and is reached by a drawbridge over a deep ravine. A Google search will give you several hits with pictures.

1. Linderhof
2. Hohenzollern
3. Neuschwanstein

Another vote for Linderhof - having seen all of Ludwig's castles, it's definitely my favorite.

Linderhof is very nice, but I wouldn't call it a castle any more than I would call the White House a castle. I guess it all depends on how one visions a castle versus a palace, a mansion or a chateau.

Strictly speaking, a castle refers to a building or group of buildings designed to fortified and defended. So, Linderhof is really a palace (and a great one to visit). Neuschwanstein is something in-between - designed to look fortified, but not seriously intended to be defended.

I do know the difference between a castle and a palace, honestly, but all my guidebooks to Bavaria refer to Linderhof as "Schloss Linderhof" so I just followed suit.

While we're on the subject, where are the real castles in Germany? I know there are some along the Rhine, but elsewhere?

Technically, a castle is any building with a tower, a moat and a drawbridge. Size has nothing to do with the definition.

P.S. My college boyfriend was an Architecture Major and I had to listen to hours of this type of talk....

By the way, Underhill, I agree with you....if the Germans called it a castle.....

Now if the French were only more logical about differentiating between a château and a true castle! I keep telling people who want to see the castles in the Loire Valley that many of them are not, just enormous houses and hunting lodges.

Is a moat an absolute requirement?

Another vote for Linderhoff and Burg Hohenzollern.

There used to be a book on Castles of Germany. There are over 25 thousand in just the former West Germany.

To reply to Underhills question, there are dozens of "real" castles (btw, I agree with your definition of a castle vs. palace) in the former East Germany, in particular in Saxony.

For example (you can google with the names if you like to :) )
Kuckuckstein, Kriebstein (a gem of a medieval castle!), Rochsburg, Colditz, Gnandstein ...

There is also one in the Harz mountains with name "Falkenstein".

In south Germany Lichtenstein is my favourite castle.

And I DISLIKE Neuschwanstein!

Happy travels,

Ingo

Not that is matters, but "Schloss" doesn't necessarily mean castle - it also translates to "palace" or "chateau" or even "large stately home." Schloss Nymphenberg, for example, is usually translated as Nymphenberg Palace.

There are many true castles that didn't have a moat (wet or dry) and drawbridge as part of their fortifications, though most that I'm familiar with did have a tower (keep) of some sort.

Question of the day for castle aficianados: which way do spiral staircases in "real" castles always turn, and why?

Which way the staircases turn depends on whether you're going up or down.

I think I remember one guide saying that the reason for having the staircase curve to the left on the way down was to leave a soldier's sword-arm (assuming he was right handed) with space to maneuver.

I find it a bit odd that anyone would actively dislike Neuschwanstein. Its history is certainly fascinating intertwined as it is with the tragic story of "Mad" King Ludwig. And I can't imagine that anyone could find it anything other than stunning in its natural setting--especially the view from Mariensbrucke. It is truly a fantasy confection that could only have been conceived and realized by someone with a unique world view ala Ludwig.

But different strokes for different folks. That's why they make so many different colors of neckties.

Underhill - We have a winner! Yes, based on the assumption that the defender (whose castle it is, after all) would be higher on the staircase than the attacker and facing down, so would have a better swing with his (presumably right) sword hand.

What if he were left-handed?

Often you'll find two sets of spirals, one for up, one for down and especially for use in case of an attack. Also, one might be disguised and for use in an emergency. Other than that, they are relatively easy to build and are the most efficient use of space for vertical circulation.

And sometimes very fancy sets of two, such as those at Chambord.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Burg Eltz, near the Mosel river. It's spectacular from the outside, the definition of what a "castle" should look like.

I'd never define Linderhof as a castle. It's a very lovely palace. Not at all what you might expect to see manned by a Frenchman in a Monte Python movie.

This is great! I've started checking out each suggestion. We decided to rent a car so we are starting to plan a route partially based on the one or two castles we pick from your posts.

Which one is thought to be the model for Mary Shelley's Frankenstein?

A quick surf of the net tells me the model for the castle in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is Castle Frankenstein near Darmstadt.

Here's a link that shows an image of Burg Eltz: http://www.burg-eltz.de/e_index.html.

We liked our time on the Mosel much more than on the Rhine.

Burg Eltz is wonderful, but its not in the Black Forest or Bavaria. That's why I didn't mention it.

Actually, in German,

Schloss = palace (Linderhof, Versailles, etc).

Burg = castle (Eltz, Wartburg, etc).