@@janchovanec8624 i wasn't talking about any route. I just meant like a straight line and how close they were. And even if we are talking about a route I definitely didn't walk for 3km when I was there.
@@p.sonntag3018 Come on, let's be real. He has a point. Depending on where you live-like in Krefeld, Duisburg, Essen, Frankfurt, or many other cities-you are more likely to encounter foreign languages, foreign shops, and non-German residents than locals. In some areas, you may have to look hard to find a native German. Don't be naive and ignore reality just because it makes you uncomfortable due to your influence of woke ideology and corresponding lack of rationality. The Western world is facing a significant issue with its irrational, irresponsible, and incompetent immigration policies. Countries like Sweden, which were once among the safest with some of the lowest crime rates, are now experiencing serious challenges related to immigration. We see incidents of gang shootings and drive-bys occurring in broad daylight. Crimes such as armed robberies and burglaries are on the rise, not to mention SA against women, particularly young girls - grooming, gang r_pes, torture over years and decades with the local authorities turning a blind eye because they are afraid to offend anybody and viewed as racist, we are talking about children for gods sake! The mainstream media often ignores these issues unless an immigrant is somehow wronged by a native-born citizen who is white. Do you remember the news story about the immigrant children who were allegedly attacked by white Germans? The media jumped on this story eagerly like wolves on a lamb, spreading the same old narrative about how poor immigrants are being mistreated in our supposedly racist society. However, it later turned out that the situation was the opposite: the immigrants were the ones attacking and robbing German children. But since that was inconvenient for the narrative, the story was buried and faded from the headlines.... There are countless stories like this! Come on, open your eyes to the reality that you have helped to create through your blind tolerance!
The number of castles in Germany varies between 25,000 and 35,000 since often there is no differentiating between a castle, a fortress, and a palace: Some buildings are for representation, other are military installations, some are a mix of both. Plus, there are monasteries that look like castles. I have a map under my community tab of my channel with all this buildings in Germany, Belgium, France. These three countries are plastered with medieval buildings. Oh, roughly, one third are ruins, one third are restaurants/hotels/museums, and one third - tadahhh - are inhabited by noble families. Neuschwanstan: It's not even old, damnit! It was opened in the late 1800s! It was never really used by King Ludwig, and it had electricity right from the start. A massive tourist trap, don't go there, it's not worth it. Also, last year, an American tourist killed two other Americans there ... But actually, Walt Disney visited Neuschwanstein several times and made it the blueprint for his Sleeping beauty castle. If you wish to visit a REAL castle, go see Eltz. I've been there myself.
Yepp, the current Baron is a surprisingly down to Earth guy in all his interviews. They don't live there constantly but they keep the castle in very good repair.
I stood below Reichsburg Cochem just a couple of weeks ago for the first time. I was on a hiking vacation in the Mosel and Eifel area, and one day I hiked the valley of the Endert river which feeds into the Mosel pretty much right below the Reichsburg. What a fascinating view! Sadly it was already very late afternoon, so no more time to visit the castle itself - after more than 15 miles of hiking I was probably too wasted to do anything else anyway. But the view of the Reichsburg sitting on top of the river and the town was a great finish of the whole day. Next time I'm there, I'll have to take a hike around the hills where you can look at the castle, the town and the whole valley from above which is a view I only saw from the road for seconds and nearly in the dark on my way out. Must be great to see it from a hiking trail AND have the time to take it all in.
I know you are a car guy first but in East Germany there is Jagdschloss Augustusburg in Saxony. Last year they had their 50th anniversary of motorcycle meetings. It always happens in January!! Even with the Iron wall (curtain)up bikers from around the world met there. I was there as a child and a teenager, my great grandmother lived there. Look up their stories. The most dedicated and hardcore bikers go there during winter months, just amazing 😮 love your videos
There is an interesting thing about the word castle in German. We are using two different words for two different styles of castles: “Schloss” and “Burg”. While “Burg” is used for a castle in a sense of a military fortress, “Schloss” is more like a prestigious palace. But there’re so many types of castles that the transition is fluent. Sometimes they were rebuilt or restructured and became the opposite. The early ones were intended to be a safe place for a noble and his peasants. But while the home of the nobles had to be more and more impressive and prestigious military needs increased. After a while they split up the concepts of a luxury home and a military fortress and a new word appeared: “Festung”, literally fortress. And at this point a “Burg” was something like an old concept. “Schloss” is used until today. In our region are many castles. It’s about 20 minutes to the castles of Manderscheid (Manderscheider Burgen), 15 minutes to Castle Bruch (Burg Bruch), 50 minutes to Cochem Castle (Reichsburg Cochem) and something about 1 hour to Eltz Castle (Burg Eltz). The last ones were in the video. There’re also ruins of more castles around. And I was born about 100 km (62 miles) away at the river Rhine, a region with hundreds of castles like Altenwied Castle (Burg Altenwied), Altwied Castle (Burg Altwied), Neuwied Castle (Schloss Neuwied), Castle Linz (Burg Linz), Sayn Castle (Burg Sayn), Hammerstein Castle (Burg Hammerstein) or the famous Marksburg. Also the Drachenfels (literally Dragon’s Rock) with the Drachenburg Castle (Schloss Drachenburg) from the video is nearby. For me it’s an absolutely normal view to see cars around castles, just the normal way to get there. And many castles are an interesting spot to go to. Many of them have restaurants, hotels, museums or public resting areas within beautiful parks. And there are also castle like monasteries around, like the Himmerord Abbey (Kloster Himmerod) or Maria Laach Abbey (Abtei Maria Laach).
Thank you so much for all this information. I’m learning German so this is incredibly helpful. I love etymology in any language, but Germany’s is fascinating.
#1 is a natural. It ALWAYS is on place #1 because of Disney. 😅 There sure are lots more castles, some of them only fragments are standing. Nonetheless, those might be even more impressive.
Unfortunately, a famous German castle was not mentioned in the video: Braunfels Castle in the town of the same name called Braunfels. As a Texan, you might be interested to know that settlers from Braunfels founded the town of New Braunfels in Texas.
I‘ve left a link to it in a comment above… it’s the less comical "brother" of Neuschwanstein, only an hour drive away from Frankfurt/Main. BTw, nearby, in Weilburg you can canoe on the Lahn river through a tunnel, crossing a castle’s mountain, something that gets quite memorable too… Greetz from a Hessian :)
I stayed hundreds of nights and days in a castle. Castles are so common here that my family actually rented one as a holiday home for 30 years. (and we are not rich) ok it was not big, but it was a real one, from the 1600s, with towers, a moat (with water!) and a bridge. it was a bit in disrepair, thats why the rent was very cheap and 3 generations of us visited as often as possible (we also shared the costs between the extended family members. I loved it as a child, but we had to let it go when the renovation costs were too high and the owner had to sell it to somebody with millions to fix it. it looked Exactly like the 1st white one you showed, except much smaller, about 1/3rd the size edit, just saw more footage , make that 1/8th the size. we went there on school holidays and often just the weekends. you could play in the forests and on the water, but the land around was public grounds, open to anyone, basically a park. we kids, told many a ghost story on those stays, to scare our little sisters, and it had plenty of nooks and crannies to explore, 4 cellars and at least 5 attics... but other than that it was just a normal, yet very big house, but old fashioned, without modern comforts. we still had to use coal and wood to heat it, and the bathroom situation was never developed beyond the 1950s. it was incredible fun. as a child I didn't know how lucky we were.
In Heidelberg were the headquarters of the US Army in Europe from 1952 to 2012. I think that might be part of the reason, why the castle and the city are both fairly well known in the US for such a "small" city. Also, the pictures in the video don't really do it justice. The castle is above the historic old town next to the river Neckar with the old bridge. Looks way more impressive than in the video.
Coltrane, a small town in Scotland has a castle that is a backpacker hostel. I stayed there 10-14 years ago. It's cheap and you can have the experience of sleeping in a castle. In Spain, where I'm from, we have a National Hotels chain (it's runned by Spain goverment) called Paradores Nacionales that are castles, mansions, old monasteries... There are not so cheap because there are 4-5 star hotels but they are beautiful and usually with lots of Spanish history. You can sleep in the old monestir cell of a famous Spanish monk or on the old jail (it's a mansion converted in a jail and converted now in a hotel) where was detained a faumos Spanish writer or in an old Temple monestir. Cardona castle has it's own haunted bedroom. Neuschwanstein castle is beautiful but I loved the less known castle that is near: Lindehof. It has a paceful garden.
I think the trick was in their transgenerational thinking, every lord building further on their mighty noble family and a mighty building to keep also future generations safe and mighty.
Greetings from Hamburg/Germany! Just returned from a trip to Bavaria, visiting the Kaltenberg Knight's Tournament, the city of Landsberg/Lech, and Füssen with Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau. While Neuschwanstein Castle is "magical", I'll always prefer Hohenschwangau Castle because it's way more "alive" and much more beautiful.
When it comes to seeing lots of castles pretty close together the best places are the middle Rhine Valley in Germany and the Loire Valley in France. When it comes to most pitoresk villages my favorite is The Alsace Wine Trail in France. If you go in early autumn when the new wines of the year come out it's even better. While you are in the Alsace it's a short ride to Vosges, the province just next to the Alsace... gorgeous region as well.
There was a big US-Garrison in Heidelberg back in time, this might be why you have heard of it. I encountered something similar when i was in the states, talking with people about where i am from. I was surprised how many knew Ansbach but its logic, there are two garrisons nearby 😅.
I stayed for the weekend in Carcassonne castlated town, for a kid it was as close as possible to living in king arthurs castle, I will never forget that weekend,we were invited to stand guard two times during that weekend wearing chainmail and trus and spears, just awesome,if ever you visit southern france I strongly suggest you visit this truly historical castleated town
Neuschwanstein was essentially a vanity project, as castles of that kind were quite outdated. The trend had shifted towards palaces with vast gardens to symbolize wealth, as "modern" weaponry had rendered fortress-style castles virtually obsolete.
Burg Eltz is amazing. It is built on a rather small rock outcrop. The limited space required the owners to build higher than usual. It got legally split in 3 parts due to inheritance and the 3 resulting branches of the family continued to live on the castle side by side peacefully for centuries. The landscape of the Neckar river valley near Burg Eltz is extremely beautiful.
It's the Moselle, not the Neckar. The most remarkable fact about Eltz is that it has been the property of one single family through 1200 years of history. An ancestor of the contemporary owners built it.
Nice episode to react. The 2nd one "Burg Altena" is where my mum and her side of the family (my grandma etc.) used to grew up and I visited some family back in the 80's as a kid, too. Always was cool as a kid. I live in a small town (around 50,000 people) and we also have our castle, I perfectly can look to out of my window and it's lighted in the evening. Our castle here is now the city's court and was totally rebuild since world war II. Our german castles, some of course are simply incredible and still so many townsides are still taking care to these old days, but more the history of our country. There are some cool places. But not just here in Germany, but we still do have a lot of beautiful castles. Places with old castles are always like from another time.
I live in Germany, but I am from Portugal / UK... nothing compares with Palácio da Pena in Sintra or the feeling of Glastonbury Tor... All in all, yes we in Europe are surrounded by amazing Castles, Palaces and centuries old amazing architecture literally everywhere, Germany is amazing in medieval architecture btw, France also, everywhere really... yes with cars these days lol, but who does not like to see a Rolls-Royce, Bugatti or a super Porsche or Ferrari or Lamborghini in the streets of an old town (or even an old Fiat or VW for that matter)? ...we're going electric now anyway, plus we have high speed trains hehe.. bit by bit we do modernize, look at Rotterdam, London city, Parque das Nações in Lisbon or La Défense in Paris, etc etc... hehe... Time is a wonderful thing right? There is no place on Earth where you can see time in your daily life as you do in Europe!
Since before Roman age the builders knew many fancy tools made from wood and iron and ropes, they knew many types of constrution cranes. thats how those very tall structures were build. We sometimes forget that we dont need electric machines to build exeptional constructions :) I think the mechanical and phisical ideas behind wooden tools with ropes were the same as behind medieval siege machines.
We do have a LOT of castles ;D Just for perspective... I'm living in a small countryside town (pop 35k) near the Dutch border and there are at least 10 castles just on the German side in a circle of 30min drive from me.
Hi, Burg Altena is in my neighboring town. We also stayed there overnight when I was at school. It's definitely an experience. But what's even better is that once a year there is a medieval festival in Burg Altena and the town of Altena, with historical food, music, games and so on. What would of course also be a highlight for you is the beer. The cherry flavoerd beer is the best. Afterwards a good portion of Gulasch from the castle, a dream. 😂 I occasionally see Schloss Neuschwanstein when I'm on a business trip from my work. It's also nice but not my favorite, but the landscape is amazing. So if you are lucky enough to come to Germany, there is a lot worth seeing. Best regards from a car guy and fan from German. 😉
Cool. Last year, on the return back home from my vacation to Austria, we took a little detour and stopped in Southern Germany. There, I saw the Hohenschwangau Castle and the Neuschwanstein Castle in real life. :)
Actually "Castle" ist splited in its meaning, there is "Schloss" and there is "Burg". A Schloss is kind of for representing yourself and receive guests at fancy events, a Burg is more like a defense building to protect yourself inside during conflicts. Of course some times this is combined.
The one you imagine being born in. I watched a documentary on that one. It is owned by one of the, if not the ritchest family of Germany. Apperently they use the throneroom for their boardmeetings. Can you imagine being there seeing the old ritches and glory from the middleages, and seeing maybachs and thick landrovers parcked outside... the power that must project.... incredible!
I had a tour in the Lichtenstein Castle. The reason for it to be on the massive cliff, was for defensive purposes and view. There you could already see MILES away an attacking army, and beeing so high up, it was very difficult to attack / easy to defend.
a schweriner here and our castle really doesnt have a bad angle as you mentioned but since its almost always worked on you can oftentimes see scaffoldings that do create bad angles its just 5 min from my home and its always beautiful even the teenagers favorite spot to drink is just 300m next to that castle and has a perfect view at it so even they enjoy the beauty of it
9:30 is the Imperial Castle of Cochem. Pretty cool. I live there. Being a kid my bed was standing in a way that I could see the castle through the window.
My college was in a small town castle, but I haven't stayed there overnight 😊. When I was a kid, we stayed overnight multiple times camping in sleeping bags in various ruins with our Scout organization.
Have been to the Heidelberg Castle a few years ago, true that you better make an appointment for a guided tour, but the front garden is open to the general public and that alone alreads is something very special, since, though it is not shown in this video, you have a tremendously beautiful view over pretty much all oover the city of Heidelberg and the neighbouring river....it's a sight you HAVE to see at least once in your life, nothing will ever come close. I like to imagine that this very scenic was the inspiration for the famous german folklore song "Ich hab mein Herz in Heidelberg verloren" by Heinz Maria Lins
my personal favourite castle is the castle of Bran, Romania. visited in 2005. it has all the comfort you need: electricity, central heating, but also the medieval stoves to heat the rooms. you could still live in it today.
2:48 - You can go on a wonderful hiking holiday with the family, because in this low mountain range there are many small villages with youth hostels where you can stay cheaply and then move on to the next village the next day. All places are approx. 20 km away.
We have one near where I live in the Netherlands called Muiderslot in Muiden. In the city where I live we have one of only 5 Star formation fortresses left called Naarden- Vesting. And with my dad I took a drive to Uddel and Uddelemeer(lake), lake came from ice age and at one point is 17 meters deep. Myth about giant fighting with Donar(thunder). We drove through the polder(reclaimed land from Zuiderzee), in spring they have loads of fields with tulips.
The Family that lives in Burg Eltz is has done some interviews (somewhere on RUclips, i am sure) that points out how hoffifyingly expensive the upkeep of these places are - no matter if you have a bit more more money than other people. That is why Burg Eltz is open to the public as well, to bring in some much needed funds (and of course to share the historic place with people), while the Family lives in a third of the Castle.
If you someday want to travel Germany and vist a few castle here and there, i highly recommend the middle rhine valley. Beautiful section of the rhine river which meanders through the landscape surrounded by castles, vineyards and cliffs, and vineyards on cliffs ;) And the best part is, that you can take this route anyway if you want to travel from north to south or the other way around
9:36 I think many people have a picture just like this, because there is a nice bridge to stand on. I've been here many times. Cochem is very popular as a family vacation.
Hello and thank you for the contribution. Check out pictures of Trifels Castle in the Palatinate Forest. A fortress where King Richard the Lionheart stayed until the ransom was paid.
i live 10 miles away Burg Altena...its a very beautyfull castle on top of a small city by a river, rammstein performed on the castle courtyard since 15 years ago...very nice restaurant there too with a castle Museum...we have many old castles and water castles here
"Stating that Germany has a total of 25,000 castles. Germany has population of about 83.2 million, so that's about one castle for every 3,300 people. Some articles also speak of 20,000, but either way, that's way higher than. the number of McDonald's locations in the entire US, which as of this year is 13,520." Just leaving this here. And yes i slept in a castle a few times, once in a round corner tower and with a "Schlossgespenst" (a castle ghost which was totally real), and although it's technically not a castle but a Napoleonic era fortification our student bar was in one of the bastion towers. You should also look into King Ludwig II of Bavaria, his story is really wild and there are conspiracy theories and even secret societies surrounding them to this day.
25,000 castles in Germany alone?! 😂 The Czech Republic is the country with the highest density of castles in the world (maybe with the exception of Wales - but that's not independent country) and it has "only" 924 castles including castle ruins or castles, forts and fortresses that have been converted into chateaus and if you include objects built as the original chateaus you get to about 2,000 buildings and ruins in total. Germany is 4.5 times bigger than the Czech Republic, so it should have at least 4,158 castles and including chateaus about 9,000 buildings in total to have at least the same density of castles as the Czech Republic. 25,000 is either total nonsense or they have declared every private hacienda as a castle... 😉😁
@@toruvalejo6152That 20’000 number comes from a private association (Deutsche Burgenvereinigung) that has been trying to catalog all ‘castles’ in Germany. They published that 20’000 number a couple of years ago, adding they had not finished their work yet (which might be the origin of the 25’000 number as an estimate). In German they use the terms ‘Burgen, Schlösser und Herrenhäuser’ which can be translated as castles, palaces and manor houses. This probably can be defined as all residences of the nobility. Castles (or Burgen in German) can generally be defined as fortified residences of members of the nobility, whereas palaces and manor houses dispense with the fortification aspect. There are also a relatively small number of medieval fortresses that belonged to associations like the Knights Templar, a military order or fortified monasteries, which would not fall into the category of private residences. Finally, this 20’000 number includes all ruins, with sometimes as little as remains of foundations, as well as documented historical ‘castles’ even if no remains are visible any more.
The majority of them are not castles they are country houses. A castle has to have a laird and significant defences and fortifications to be a castle. Not exactly hard to invade when you can walk right up to the front door. They're pretty much fancy country houses.
I support you in your travel-analysis: big cities are nice, but especially the smaller towns show the unique atmosphere of a country and as far as Germany is concerned also the historic architecture, which vanished in larger cities mostly - due to WWII bombing, car-friendly city planning and also earlier destructions of war. So I would always recommend, even if you want to visit the hot spots and vibrant cities, to see the
@iwrocker Else Castle was chosen as the filming location for the TV series Carnival Row. Watch a video about Malbork Castle in Poland, it is the largest brick castle in the world and is open to visitors. Visiting the entire castle and all available locations along with the museum collections takes about 6 hours.
Burg Altena and many other castles are youth hostels with very fair pricing. I've never been, but have definitely thought it over. Could be something to check out if you're across the pond sometime!
I had groan up in one and I can tell you it's fun!! Ok Neu Schwanstein castle looks cool and it is cool! But you have to understand that there are only 15 full build rooms in it, because after the daeth of king Ludwig they don't build it further!! To describe it like this: completely overcrowded and not enough to see inside! That's why I recommend visiting Linderhof Castle, also built by King Ludwig. It's smaller but fully developed! What you see there is just wow!! Above all, Linderhof Castle is not as well known as the other King Ludwig castles!!
The school in the little Swedish town where I grew up was situated next to a small castle, that had (in the 60s or 70s, I guess) been painted in brown and orange and turned into a kindergarten. It always felt a little mysterious and intriguing.
I am Czech and my secondary school building was a chateau built in 1550's. It was really cold in there, even in summer and the draught was really annoying in the winter. The school didn't have enough money for the heating or new windows as it is a historic building and theredore subject to very strict regulations.
that is why I always say I live in very young city - first written record from 1302, city rights in 1312 (If I was US citizen, it will be like - our railstation is old as fck - it is built in 1867-1872 = 152yo) you get like always from me, greetings from Slovakia
I didn't spend the night in a castle or anything like that, but we did spend the night in our local church when we were doing our conformity lessons. So sleeping on a cold church floor at night, with moonlight shining through the large church windows. That was a bit spooky. But also kind of cool. Only the next morning, of course, was chaos, especially when the girls were nagging because there was no shower and so on in the church. On the day, in fine weather, we walked up to the church tower. Our deacon then set the big church bell in motion by hand. It was so loud that the floor vibrated. Compared to France (over 40,000 castles), we only have over 26,000, but it is estimated that around 14 of these were reserved solely for the king or the emperor. In other words, as a residence. 6:03 Oh Dragon-Castle in Königswinter. I was there in 2021. Inside is very cool. Many wood walls and different rooms (for example a salon or a room for wedding).
The list is kind of a mixture. Some are castles, some are palaces, some are something in between. Drachenburg at 6:00 was built by a rich man in the late 19th century, so it's more like a millionaire's estate of its time. Neuschwanstein falls into the Romantic era with Ludwig bringing Bavaria close to bankruptcy because of his fairy tale wishes. Hohenzollern one of the mightiest royal branches in Europe, family of the last German Emperors. Probably only topped by the Austrian Habsburger (look for Austrian castles/palaces, they are top notch, too). Nevertheless there are plenty of castles and palaces in Germany. Just take a look at a map of the Holy Roman Empire at any date and you will see, how divided the whole German area was into seperate prinicipalities and almost every duke, king, whatever wanted to have his own palace. Then one for their wives. And if the realm was divided into seperate branches between the children, everyone got their palace and so on :D And the same goes for castles. Especially the rivers. Following the Rhine you'll see one every few kilometers. Most of the time you'll see another castle standing on the top tower of one of them.
Thousands? There are between 18.000-25.000 (depending on how you count) castles, palaces and other historic fortifications in Germany (not counting WW1 and WW2 ones), some are ruins, others are privately held and some you can visit, and some you can rent.
Hello from France. The Disney Castles are inspired by thé travel in world war one, when Walt was driver in Croix Rouge (Red Cross) in France. Hé design with inspiration of Château de Neuschwanstein but more by the Châteaux de la Loire in France 🇫🇷 Have a good night from thé most beautiful country, La France 😉
I've been to two music festivals in Castles. We once rented an entire castle with a group of live action role playing people. And I spent 3 hours in the dungeon with water and bread! Hahahaha! It's always interesting in places like this!
As to the topic of castles renovated and redecorated as hotels - it depends :) You can stay in 16-19 century palaces with realy elegant and elaborate rooms - baroque-ish design with a dose of fin-de-siecle gold vibe :) but you can also check those medieval fortresses 12-15 centuries which offer fans of medieval reconstructions more primitive, stark, stern design and decor with stone and wood and iron. Lots of iron - like iron lamps and swords over the mantle and such. :) You know this Game of Thrones vibe :) I've been to both kinds and I love both kinds of hotels.
They say the last one, Neuschwanstein, is a must visit. They tell that to all tourists, so when you actually visit it there will be thousands of tourists in line waiting to get in. I guess it's kinda pretty. But there are over 20'000 other castles in Germany. I'm sure you'll find an interesting one somewhere else. I live in Saxony and there are at least 3 castles within biking range from my home. There are like a dozen more within daytrip range. We have castles absolutely everywhere.
I live in Bonn, and when I look outside the window, I look directly up to Godesburg Castle :D it is basically just a classic round tower and some ruins around, but it is a nice view. Also Drachenburg Castle mentioned in this video is very close.
As a German, I don't even know half of these castles and palaces. Sometimes we all forget, no matter where we live, how beautiful our homeland is. 🫶👏👏👏
We actually married in a castle in the Netherlands called Heeswijk in Heeswijk-Dinther. They allowed us to marry in their chapel, have lunch on the castle grounds, portraits in the gardens and then dinner and the party in the catacombs. We even had a swordfight in the middle of the night in our suit and wedding dress.
I am not a castle expert either, but what I find interesting with some castles is that you can literally see how they developed. It starts with one very old building, then some hundered years later, it expanded and then expanded again. And again. I also find ruins of old castles very interesting, those make my mind wander. I have once stayed overnight in a "kind of a castle" in Sweden, and it was somewhat spooky. It didn´t really help that they gave us the "ghost tour" before dinner. Now, I AM a sceptic and don´t really believe in ghosts, but those mighty and old buildings makes me doubt... it is a very ambivalent thing. :)
As a kid our school trips mostly gone to a castle or another historic place. One time we went to a place called "druidenstein" what can be translated to druid stone. It was a big stony hill on wich in the 9th century the priests held there gatherings and also sacrificed humans. When you grow up in the middle of so much history it's amazing By the way there are more than 25.000 castles in Germany
*Well, there are a few castles, which definitely should have been on this list.......Schloss Herrenchiemsee [ Old Palace (Herrenchiemsee Abbey), New Palace ], Schloss Linderhof [ Linderhof Palace ], Schloss Nymphenburg [ Nymphenburg Palace ], Würzburger Residenz [ Würzburg Residence ], Nürnberger Burg [ Nuremberg Castle ], .............*
you might wanna take a look at burghausen castle, which holds the world record of the longest castle in the world. i am working in the old town of burghausen and still like the view at it every day
Damn cold is what it is... In summer the thick walls prevent the outside heat from coming in, but in winter they also absorb the inside heat. Plus, high ceilings mean that you are freezing. And no central heating of course... Plus, the real old ones have tiny windows. So it's a bit like living in a man-made cave, but without resident bears... You can get a discount veion of the experience by staying at an old farmhouse... Walls 4 foot thick and 9 foot ceilings... Try heating that with an open fireplace (I tried for two years)...
Neuschwanstein is easily the most famous castle. But it's also a touristtrap at this point. There might be castles out there that give you a better visting experience.
Fun fact about Neuschwanstein castle: There is a ballpark nearby, King's Field. MLB even titled it something like "The most beautiful ballpark in europe"
I just visited Neuschwanstein a few weeks ago......in Japan! Near Himeji (mostly known for their impressive original Japanese castle....) is a kinda weird theme park named Taiyo Park, with a 2/3 scale replica of Neuschwanstein.... Never seen the real thing though, even when I have been in that area 😅
I am from Schwerin and i can tell you that the Schwerin Castle is beautiful and is surrounded by a huge Garden. If you have the chance to see it, do it :D We also have a nice Downtown right next to the castle. It is totally worth a visit :)
Germany has the most maintained castles I think. They also maintain older features. You can find a lot of castles spread out over Europe btw (45,000 in france for instance). I've spent a few nights in a monasty once and lived how they lived (except the praying) as a retreat. It's fun and very relaxing. Not a lot of light though. I regularly rent a part of a (smaller) castle as a B&B for me and my kids. Nothing compares to that imho. The city I live close to, has a pretty famous castle. Charles V lived and has seen many things. The first fortification was made in the 9th century against pillaging vikings, went thorugh a lot of phases untill somewhat completed in the 15th century, only to be turned into a weaving factory and completely covered on the sided with houses and such. Now it's almost fully restored and turned into a museum for related topics (yes, also torture devices) and unique weaponry and armor. The week of the 21st of July, the whole of Ghent turns into one big festivity for ten days and the castle has numerous activities at that time. I've seen reinactments with genuine clothing, archery classes for visitors, blacksmiths whacking their sword into the castle wall just to prove they know their skill, chainmail covering being made, you name it.
Schwerin is my hometown. For me, of course, it's the most beautiful castle at all, even more beautiful than Neuschwanstein where I've also been several times.
Both castles with the mountains that you liked Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau are on opposite hills about 1km apart. It was built by father and son
It's certainly not 1km, the route for pedestrians was around 3km last time I was there.
@@janchovanec8624 i wasn't talking about any route. I just meant like a straight line and how close they were. And even if we are talking about a route I definitely didn't walk for 3km when I was there.
It is more like 3-4 km distance on foot. 2km direct air distance.
Germany is a beautiful country full of fabulous people. I can’t wait to go back. 😊
Was a beautiful country. Learn Arabic before your next visit, you can use it better than German or English.
@@Standgedicht Lüfte mal dein Oberstübchen durch, Michel!
@@p.sonntag3018 Come on, let's be real. He has a point. Depending on where you live-like in Krefeld, Duisburg, Essen, Frankfurt, or many other cities-you are more likely to encounter foreign languages, foreign shops, and non-German residents than locals. In some areas, you may have to look hard to find a native German.
Don't be naive and ignore reality just because it makes you uncomfortable due to your influence of woke ideology and corresponding lack of rationality. The Western world is facing a significant issue with its irrational, irresponsible, and incompetent immigration policies. Countries like Sweden, which were once among the safest with some of the lowest crime rates, are now experiencing serious challenges related to immigration. We see incidents of gang shootings and drive-bys occurring in broad daylight. Crimes such as armed robberies and burglaries are on the rise, not to mention SA against women, particularly young girls - grooming, gang r_pes, torture over years and decades with the local authorities turning a blind eye because they are afraid to offend anybody and viewed as racist, we are talking about children for gods sake!
The mainstream media often ignores these issues unless an immigrant is somehow wronged by a native-born citizen who is white. Do you remember the news story about the immigrant children who were allegedly attacked by white Germans? The media jumped on this story eagerly like wolves on a lamb, spreading the same old narrative about how poor immigrants are being mistreated in our supposedly racist society. However, it later turned out that the situation was the opposite: the immigrants were the ones attacking and robbing German children. But since that was inconvenient for the narrative, the story was buried and faded from the headlines.... There are countless stories like this! Come on, open your eyes to the reality that you have helped to create through your blind tolerance!
The number of castles in Germany varies between 25,000 and 35,000 since often there is no differentiating between a castle, a fortress, and a palace: Some buildings are for representation, other are military installations, some are a mix of both. Plus, there are monasteries that look like castles. I have a map under my community tab of my channel with all this buildings in Germany, Belgium, France. These three countries are plastered with medieval buildings. Oh, roughly, one third are ruins, one third are restaurants/hotels/museums, and one third - tadahhh - are inhabited by noble families. Neuschwanstan: It's not even old, damnit! It was opened in the late 1800s! It was never really used by King Ludwig, and it had electricity right from the start. A massive tourist trap, don't go there, it's not worth it. Also, last year, an American tourist killed two other Americans there ... But actually, Walt Disney visited Neuschwanstein several times and made it the blueprint for his Sleeping beauty castle. If you wish to visit a REAL castle, go see Eltz. I've been there myself.
Eltz Castle has been in the family for 800 years and there is a short report about it in English from DW.
Yepp, the current Baron is a surprisingly down to Earth guy in all his interviews. They don't live there constantly but they keep the castle in very good repair.
I stood below Reichsburg Cochem just a couple of weeks ago for the first time. I was on a hiking vacation in the Mosel and Eifel area, and one day I hiked the valley of the Endert river which feeds into the Mosel pretty much right below the Reichsburg. What a fascinating view! Sadly it was already very late afternoon, so no more time to visit the castle itself - after more than 15 miles of hiking I was probably too wasted to do anything else anyway. But the view of the Reichsburg sitting on top of the river and the town was a great finish of the whole day. Next time I'm there, I'll have to take a hike around the hills where you can look at the castle, the town and the whole valley from above which is a view I only saw from the road for seconds and nearly in the dark on my way out. Must be great to see it from a hiking trail AND have the time to take it all in.
Its flooded now unfortunately
I know you are a car guy first but in East Germany there is Jagdschloss Augustusburg in Saxony. Last year they had their 50th anniversary of motorcycle meetings. It always happens in January!! Even with the Iron wall (curtain)up bikers from around the world met there. I was there as a child and a teenager, my great grandmother lived there. Look up their stories. The most dedicated and hardcore bikers go there during winter months, just amazing 😮 love your videos
There is an interesting thing about the word castle in German. We are using two different words for two different styles of castles: “Schloss” and “Burg”. While “Burg” is used for a castle in a sense of a military fortress, “Schloss” is more like a prestigious palace. But there’re so many types of castles that the transition is fluent. Sometimes they were rebuilt or restructured and became the opposite. The early ones were intended to be a safe place for a noble and his peasants. But while the home of the nobles had to be more and more impressive and prestigious military needs increased. After a while they split up the concepts of a luxury home and a military fortress and a new word appeared: “Festung”, literally fortress. And at this point a “Burg” was something like an old concept. “Schloss” is used until today.
In our region are many castles. It’s about 20 minutes to the castles of Manderscheid (Manderscheider Burgen), 15 minutes to Castle Bruch (Burg Bruch), 50 minutes to Cochem Castle (Reichsburg Cochem) and something about 1 hour to Eltz Castle (Burg Eltz). The last ones were in the video. There’re also ruins of more castles around.
And I was born about 100 km (62 miles) away at the river Rhine, a region with hundreds of castles like Altenwied Castle (Burg Altenwied), Altwied Castle (Burg Altwied), Neuwied Castle (Schloss Neuwied), Castle Linz (Burg Linz), Sayn Castle (Burg Sayn), Hammerstein Castle (Burg Hammerstein) or the famous Marksburg. Also the Drachenfels (literally Dragon’s Rock) with the Drachenburg Castle (Schloss Drachenburg) from the video is nearby.
For me it’s an absolutely normal view to see cars around castles, just the normal way to get there. And many castles are an interesting spot to go to. Many of them have restaurants, hotels, museums or public resting areas within beautiful parks. And there are also castle like monasteries around, like the Himmerord Abbey (Kloster Himmerod) or Maria Laach Abbey (Abtei Maria Laach).
Thank you so much for all this information. I’m learning German so this is incredibly helpful. I love etymology in any language, but Germany’s is fascinating.
The Wartburg Castle is the place where Martin Luther translated the bible. A fact that should have been mentioned.
#1 is a natural. It ALWAYS is on place #1 because of Disney. 😅
There sure are lots more castles, some of them only fragments are standing. Nonetheless, those might be even more impressive.
Been there a few years ago
Yes and also in 1817 the Wartburgfest which is an important historical event in the process of founding the first German state
And since the recurring theme of this channel, inspired the communists to name a manufacturer of 2 stroke sedans after it.
It's a bot voice video, what do you expect...
UK castle's are cool too. My home city is Edinburgh, its castle was built on a dormant volcano
Unfortunately, a famous German castle was not mentioned in the video: Braunfels Castle in the town of the same name called Braunfels. As a Texan, you might be interested to know that settlers from Braunfels founded the town of New Braunfels in Texas.
I‘ve left a link to it in a comment above… it’s the less comical "brother" of Neuschwanstein, only an hour drive away from Frankfurt/Main.
BTw, nearby, in Weilburg you can canoe on the Lahn river through a tunnel, crossing a castle’s mountain, something that gets quite memorable too…
Greetz from a Hessian :)
I live 15 minutes away from Braunfels and it never accured to me that this place is the reason for New Braunfels.
Learning something everyday
I stayed hundreds of nights and days in a castle. Castles are so common here that my family actually rented one as a holiday home for 30 years. (and we are not rich) ok it was not big, but it was a real one, from the 1600s, with towers, a moat (with water!) and a bridge. it was a bit in disrepair, thats why the rent was very cheap and 3 generations of us visited as often as possible (we also shared the costs between the extended family members. I loved it as a child, but we had to let it go when the renovation costs were too high and the owner had to sell it to somebody with millions to fix it.
it looked Exactly like the 1st white one you showed, except much smaller, about 1/3rd the size edit, just saw more footage , make that 1/8th the size.
we went there on school holidays and often just the weekends. you could play in the forests and on the water, but the land around was public grounds, open to anyone, basically a park.
we kids, told many a ghost story on those stays, to scare our little sisters, and it had plenty of nooks and crannies to explore, 4 cellars and at least 5 attics... but other than that it was just a normal, yet very big house, but old fashioned, without modern comforts. we still had to use coal and wood to heat it, and the bathroom situation was never developed beyond the 1950s.
it was incredible fun. as a child I didn't know how lucky we were.
In Heidelberg were the headquarters of the US Army in Europe from 1952 to 2012. I think that might be part of the reason, why the castle and the city are both fairly well known in the US for such a "small" city. Also, the pictures in the video don't really do it justice. The castle is above the historic old town next to the river Neckar with the old bridge. Looks way more impressive than in the video.
Coltrane, a small town in Scotland has a castle that is a backpacker hostel. I stayed there 10-14 years ago. It's cheap and you can have the experience of sleeping in a castle.
In Spain, where I'm from, we have a National Hotels chain (it's runned by Spain goverment) called Paradores Nacionales that are castles, mansions, old monasteries... There are not so cheap because there are 4-5 star hotels but they are beautiful and usually with lots of Spanish history. You can sleep in the old monestir cell of a famous Spanish monk or on the old jail (it's a mansion converted in a jail and converted now in a hotel) where was detained a faumos Spanish writer or in an old Temple monestir. Cardona castle has it's own haunted bedroom.
Neuschwanstein castle is beautiful but I loved the less known castle that is near: Lindehof. It has a paceful garden.
Its really amazing, the beautiful structures Europeans were able to build in such difficult to reach locations such a long time ago
I think the trick was in their transgenerational thinking, every lord building further on their mighty noble family and a mighty building to keep also future generations safe and mighty.
Greetings from Hamburg/Germany! Just returned from a trip to Bavaria, visiting the Kaltenberg Knight's Tournament, the city of Landsberg/Lech, and Füssen with Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau. While Neuschwanstein Castle is "magical", I'll always prefer Hohenschwangau Castle because it's way more "alive" and much more beautiful.
We have some great castles in Australia .
Sand castles .
Like ancient America had many fortresses - Super Fortresses 😜
😂😂😂😂😂❤❤❤❤❤ from Germany 🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪
When it comes to seeing lots of castles pretty close together the best places are the middle Rhine Valley in Germany and the Loire Valley in France.
When it comes to most pitoresk villages my favorite is The Alsace Wine Trail in France. If you go in early autumn when the new wines of the year come out it's even better. While you are in the Alsace it's a short ride to Vosges, the province just next to the Alsace... gorgeous region as well.
There was a big US-Garrison in Heidelberg back in time, this might be why you have heard of it. I encountered something similar when i was in the states, talking with people about where i am from. I was surprised how many knew Ansbach but its logic, there are two garrisons nearby 😅.
That's cool that even the Castle in Schwerin is in the Video, it's 35km away from me.
I stayed for the weekend in Carcassonne castlated town, for a kid it was as close as possible to living in king arthurs castle, I will never forget that weekend,we were invited to stand guard two times during that weekend wearing chainmail and trus and spears, just awesome,if ever you visit southern france I strongly suggest you visit this truly historical castleated town
Neuschwanstein was essentially a vanity project, as castles of that kind were quite outdated. The trend had shifted towards palaces with vast gardens to symbolize wealth, as "modern" weaponry had rendered fortress-style castles virtually obsolete.
Burg Eltz is amazing. It is built on a rather small rock outcrop. The limited space required the owners to build higher than usual. It got legally split in 3 parts due to inheritance and the 3 resulting branches of the family continued to live on the castle side by side peacefully for centuries. The landscape of the Neckar river valley near Burg Eltz is extremely beautiful.
It's the Moselle, not the Neckar.
The most remarkable fact about Eltz is that it has been the property of one single family through 1200 years of history. An ancestor of the contemporary owners built it.
Nice episode to react. The 2nd one "Burg Altena" is where my mum and her side of the family (my grandma etc.) used to grew up and I visited some family back in the 80's as a kid, too. Always was cool as a kid. I live in a small town (around 50,000 people) and we also have our castle, I perfectly can look to out of my window and it's lighted in the evening. Our castle here is now the city's court and was totally rebuild since world war II.
Our german castles, some of course are simply incredible and still so many townsides are still taking care to these old days, but more the history of our country. There are some cool places. But not just here in Germany, but we still do have a lot of beautiful castles. Places with old castles are always like from another time.
I live in Germany, but I am from Portugal / UK... nothing compares with Palácio da Pena in Sintra or the feeling of Glastonbury Tor... All in all, yes we in Europe are surrounded by amazing Castles, Palaces and centuries old amazing architecture literally everywhere, Germany is amazing in medieval architecture btw, France also, everywhere really... yes with cars these days lol, but who does not like to see a Rolls-Royce, Bugatti or a super Porsche or Ferrari or Lamborghini in the streets of an old town (or even an old Fiat or VW for that matter)? ...we're going electric now anyway, plus we have high speed trains hehe.. bit by bit we do modernize, look at Rotterdam, London city, Parque das Nações in Lisbon or La Défense in Paris, etc etc... hehe... Time is a wonderful thing right?
There is no place on Earth where you can see time in your daily life as you do in Europe!
Since before Roman age the builders knew many fancy tools made from wood and iron and ropes, they knew many types of constrution cranes. thats how those very tall structures were build. We sometimes forget that we dont need electric machines to build exeptional constructions :) I think the mechanical and phisical ideas behind wooden tools with ropes were the same as behind medieval siege machines.
We do have a LOT of castles ;D
Just for perspective... I'm living in a small countryside town (pop 35k) near the Dutch border and there are at least 10 castles just on the German side in a circle of 30min drive from me.
Burg Altena was THE FIRST Youth Hostel World Wide.
Hi, Burg Altena is in my neighboring town. We also stayed there overnight when I was at school. It's definitely an experience. But what's even better is that once a year there is a medieval festival in Burg Altena and the town of Altena, with historical food, music, games and so on. What would of course also be a highlight for you is the beer. The cherry flavoerd beer is the best. Afterwards a good portion of Gulasch from the castle, a dream. 😂
I occasionally see Schloss Neuschwanstein when I'm on a business trip from my work. It's also nice but not my favorite, but the landscape is amazing.
So if you are lucky enough to come to Germany, there is a lot worth seeing.
Best regards from a car guy and fan from German. 😉
Cool. Last year, on the return back home from my vacation to Austria, we took a little detour and stopped in Southern Germany. There, I saw the Hohenschwangau Castle and the Neuschwanstein Castle in real life. :)
Actually "Castle" ist splited in its meaning, there is "Schloss" and there is "Burg". A Schloss is kind of for representing yourself and receive guests at fancy events, a Burg is more like a defense building to protect yourself inside during conflicts. Of course some times this is combined.
You may be thinking of the Heidelberg printing press!
The one you imagine being born in. I watched a documentary on that one. It is owned by one of the, if not the ritchest family of Germany. Apperently they use the throneroom for their boardmeetings. Can you imagine being there seeing the old ritches and glory from the middleages, and seeing maybachs and thick landrovers parcked outside... the power that must project.... incredible!
Thanks for the mention of Slovakia! We have Spišský hrad and Smolenice
I had a tour in the Lichtenstein Castle. The reason for it to be on the massive cliff, was for defensive purposes and view.
There you could already see MILES away an attacking army, and beeing so high up, it was very difficult to attack / easy to defend.
a schweriner here and our castle really doesnt have a bad angle as you mentioned but since its almost always worked on you can oftentimes see scaffoldings that do create bad angles
its just 5 min from my home and its always beautiful
even the teenagers favorite spot to drink is just 300m next to that castle and has a perfect view at it so even they enjoy the beauty of it
9:30 is the Imperial Castle of Cochem. Pretty cool. I live there. Being a kid my bed was standing in a way that I could see the castle through the window.
My college was in a small town castle, but I haven't stayed there overnight 😊. When I was a kid, we stayed overnight multiple times camping in sleeping bags in various ruins with our Scout organization.
Have been to the Heidelberg Castle a few years ago, true that you better make an appointment for a guided tour, but the front garden is open to the general public and that alone alreads is something very special, since, though it is not shown in this video, you have a tremendously beautiful view over pretty much all oover the city of Heidelberg and the neighbouring river....it's a sight you HAVE to see at least once in your life, nothing will ever come close.
I like to imagine that this very scenic was the inspiration for the famous german folklore song "Ich hab mein Herz in Heidelberg verloren" by Heinz Maria Lins
my personal favourite castle is the castle of Bran, Romania. visited in 2005. it has all the comfort you need: electricity, central heating, but also the medieval stoves to heat the rooms. you could still live in it today.
Welcome to Germany 🍻
10.49 - this is absolutely stunning :) Its like fancier version of Hogwart :D
2:48 - You can go on a wonderful hiking holiday with the family, because in this low mountain range there are many small villages with youth hostels where you can stay cheaply and then move on to the next village the next day. All places are approx. 20 km away.
Neuschwanstein is not a Castle, its a built in the 19th century as a private Fantasy Building of Prince Ludwig of Bavaria.
We have one near where I live in the Netherlands called Muiderslot in Muiden. In the city where I live we have one of only 5 Star formation fortresses left called Naarden- Vesting. And with my dad I took a drive to Uddel and Uddelemeer(lake), lake came from ice age and at one point is 17 meters deep. Myth about giant fighting with Donar(thunder). We drove through the polder(reclaimed land from Zuiderzee), in spring they have loads of fields with tulips.
The Family that lives in Burg Eltz is has done some interviews (somewhere on RUclips, i am sure) that points out how hoffifyingly expensive the upkeep of these places are - no matter if you have a bit more more money than other people. That is why Burg Eltz is open to the public as well, to bring in some much needed funds (and of course to share the historic place with people), while the Family lives in a third of the Castle.
It wasn't a castle, but I slept in a house from 1451 once. It was kinda scary honestly xD
If you someday want to travel Germany and vist a few castle here and there, i highly recommend the middle rhine valley. Beautiful section of the rhine river which meanders through the landscape surrounded by castles, vineyards and cliffs, and vineyards on cliffs ;) And the best part is, that you can take this route anyway if you want to travel from north to south or the other way around
The middle Rhine Valley is definitely worth it! Lots of castles close together.
I am pretty sure you can see Hohenzollern Castle from Lichtenstein Castle with bare eye. They are not far away from each other.
9:36 I think many people have a picture just like this, because there is a nice bridge to stand on. I've been here many times. Cochem is very popular as a family vacation.
Hello and thank you for the contribution. Check out pictures of Trifels Castle in the Palatinate Forest. A fortress where King Richard the Lionheart stayed until the ransom was paid.
i live 10 miles away Burg Altena...its a very beautyfull castle on top of a small city by a river, rammstein performed on the castle courtyard since 15 years ago...very nice restaurant there too with a castle Museum...we have many old castles and water castles here
On Burg Altena there is a nice Restaurant where we used to have dinner with my brother. Schnitzel there is awesome!
crazy thing is that little denmark have over 300 castles where 34 is open to public
7.33 - looks like something made with Lego :)
"Stating that Germany has a total of 25,000 castles. Germany has population of about 83.2 million, so that's about one castle for every 3,300 people. Some articles also speak of 20,000, but either way, that's way higher than. the number of McDonald's locations in the entire US, which as of this year is 13,520."
Just leaving this here.
And yes i slept in a castle a few times, once in a round corner tower and with a "Schlossgespenst" (a castle ghost which was totally real), and although it's technically not a castle but a Napoleonic era fortification our student bar was in one of the bastion towers.
You should also look into King Ludwig II of Bavaria, his story is really wild and there are conspiracy theories and even secret societies surrounding them to this day.
25,000 castles in Germany alone?! 😂 The Czech Republic is the country with the highest density of castles in the world (maybe with the exception of Wales - but that's not independent country) and it has "only" 924 castles including castle ruins or castles, forts and fortresses that have been converted into chateaus and if you include objects built as the original chateaus you get to about 2,000 buildings and ruins in total. Germany is 4.5 times bigger than the Czech Republic, so it should have at least 4,158 castles and including chateaus about 9,000 buildings in total to have at least the same density of castles as the Czech Republic. 25,000 is either total nonsense or they have declared every private hacienda as a castle... 😉😁
@@toruvalejo6152That 20’000 number comes from a private association (Deutsche Burgenvereinigung) that has been trying to catalog all ‘castles’ in Germany. They published that 20’000 number a couple of years ago, adding they had not finished their work yet (which might be the origin of the 25’000 number as an estimate).
In German they use the terms ‘Burgen, Schlösser und Herrenhäuser’ which can be translated as castles, palaces and manor houses. This probably can be defined as all residences of the nobility. Castles (or Burgen in German) can generally be defined as fortified residences of members of the nobility, whereas palaces and manor houses dispense with the fortification aspect. There are also a relatively small number of medieval fortresses that belonged to associations like the Knights Templar, a military order or fortified monasteries, which would not fall into the category of private residences.
Finally, this 20’000 number includes all ruins, with sometimes as little as remains of foundations, as well as documented historical ‘castles’ even if no remains are visible any more.
@toruvalejo6152 There are about 20 castles, palaces and ruins within a 20km radius of me here*. Lake Constance Radolfzell
@@toruvalejo6152 Belgium is also up there when it comes to castle density
The majority of them are not castles they are country houses. A castle has to have a laird and significant defences and fortifications to be a castle. Not exactly hard to invade when you can walk right up to the front door. They're pretty much fancy country houses.
I support you in your travel-analysis: big cities are nice, but especially the smaller towns show the unique atmosphere of a country and as far as Germany is concerned also the historic architecture, which vanished in larger cities mostly - due to WWII bombing, car-friendly city planning and also earlier destructions of war. So I would always recommend, even if you want to visit the hot spots and vibrant cities, to see the
@iwrocker Else Castle was chosen as the filming location for the TV series Carnival Row.
Watch a video about Malbork Castle in Poland, it is the largest brick castle in the world and is open to visitors. Visiting the entire castle and all available locations along with the museum collections takes about 6 hours.
Love Your Channel and that You are so open to different Cultures
Burg Altena and many other castles are youth hostels with very fair pricing. I've never been, but have definitely thought it over.
Could be something to check out if you're across the pond sometime!
I had groan up in one and I can tell you it's fun!! Ok Neu Schwanstein castle looks cool and it is cool! But you have to understand that there are only 15 full build rooms in it, because after the daeth of king Ludwig they don't build it further!! To describe it like this: completely overcrowded and not enough to see inside! That's why I recommend visiting Linderhof Castle, also built by King Ludwig. It's smaller but fully developed! What you see there is just wow!! Above all, Linderhof Castle is not as well known as the other King Ludwig castles!!
The school in the little Swedish town where I grew up was situated next to a small castle, that had (in the 60s or 70s, I guess) been painted in brown and orange and turned into a kindergarten. It always felt a little mysterious and intriguing.
I am Czech and my secondary school building was a chateau built in 1550's. It was really cold in there, even in summer and the draught was really annoying in the winter. The school didn't have enough money for the heating or new windows as it is a historic building and theredore subject to very strict regulations.
that is why I always say I live in very young city - first written record from 1302, city rights in 1312 (If I was US citizen, it will be like - our railstation is old as fck - it is built in 1867-1872 = 152yo)
you get like always from me, greetings from Slovakia
I didn't spend the night in a castle or anything like that, but we did spend the night in our local church when we were doing our conformity lessons. So sleeping on a cold church floor at night, with moonlight shining through the large church windows. That was a bit spooky. But also kind of cool.
Only the next morning, of course, was chaos, especially when the girls were nagging because there was no shower and so on in the church. On the day, in fine weather, we walked up to the church tower. Our deacon then set the big church bell in motion by hand. It was so loud that the floor vibrated.
Compared to France (over 40,000 castles), we only have over 26,000, but it is estimated that around 14 of these were reserved solely for the king or the emperor.
In other words, as a residence.
6:03 Oh Dragon-Castle in Königswinter. I was there in 2021. Inside is very cool. Many wood walls and different rooms (for example a salon or a room for wedding).
At minute 4:00 the tower you were pointing at is Residential tower of the castle. This is where the nobleman/ woman lived with his/ her family.
The list is kind of a mixture. Some are castles, some are palaces, some are something in between. Drachenburg at 6:00 was built by a rich man in the late 19th century, so it's more like a millionaire's estate of its time. Neuschwanstein falls into the Romantic era with Ludwig bringing Bavaria close to bankruptcy because of his fairy tale wishes. Hohenzollern one of the mightiest royal branches in Europe, family of the last German Emperors. Probably only topped by the Austrian Habsburger (look for Austrian castles/palaces, they are top notch, too). Nevertheless there are plenty of castles and palaces in Germany. Just take a look at a map of the Holy Roman Empire at any date and you will see, how divided the whole German area was into seperate prinicipalities and almost every duke, king, whatever wanted to have his own palace. Then one for their wives. And if the realm was divided into seperate branches between the children, everyone got their palace and so on :D
And the same goes for castles. Especially the rivers. Following the Rhine you'll see one every few kilometers. Most of the time you'll see another castle standing on the top tower of one of them.
Thousands? There are between 18.000-25.000 (depending on how you count) castles, palaces and other historic fortifications in Germany (not counting WW1 and WW2 ones), some are ruins, others are privately held and some you can visit, and some you can rent.
Hello from France. The Disney Castles are inspired by thé travel in world war one, when Walt was driver in Croix Rouge (Red Cross) in France. Hé design with inspiration of Château de Neuschwanstein but more by the Châteaux de la Loire in France 🇫🇷 Have a good night from thé most beautiful country, La France 😉
Weren’t the Bavarians French allies sometimes? So, Ludwig might have got some inspiration from *Le Grande Nation* - mainly to fool the Americans 🤣
In Germany are more than 25000 Castles , 😊
Castles or Castles AND Chateaus AND manors? 😉
there are more castles in germany then mc donalds in the US
I've been to two music festivals in Castles. We once rented an entire castle with a group of live action role playing people. And I spent 3 hours in the dungeon with water and bread! Hahahaha! It's always interesting in places like this!
As to the topic of castles renovated and redecorated as hotels - it depends :) You can stay in 16-19 century palaces with realy elegant and elaborate rooms - baroque-ish design with a dose of fin-de-siecle gold vibe :) but you can also check those medieval fortresses 12-15 centuries which offer fans of medieval reconstructions more primitive, stark, stern design and decor with stone and wood and iron. Lots of iron - like iron lamps and swords over the mantle and such. :) You know this Game of Thrones vibe :) I've been to both kinds and I love both kinds of hotels.
Heidelberg ♥️
My hometown 🥳
Hohenzollern & Neuschwanstein are my fave 2 castles in the world! Simply breathtaking! ♥
They say the last one, Neuschwanstein, is a must visit. They tell that to all tourists, so when you actually visit it there will be thousands of tourists in line waiting to get in. I guess it's kinda pretty. But there are over 20'000 other castles in Germany. I'm sure you'll find an interesting one somewhere else. I live in Saxony and there are at least 3 castles within biking range from my home. There are like a dozen more within daytrip range. We have castles absolutely everywhere.
I live in Bonn, and when I look outside the window, I look directly up to Godesburg Castle :D it is basically just a classic round tower and some ruins around, but it is a nice view. Also Drachenburg Castle mentioned in this video is very close.
Take a boat-trip from Wiesbaden to Köln, you will see also a lot of old an wonderful castles.
As a German, I don't even know half of these castles and palaces. Sometimes we all forget, no matter where we live, how beautiful our homeland is. 🫶👏👏👏
We actually married in a castle in the Netherlands called Heeswijk in Heeswijk-Dinther. They allowed us to marry in their chapel, have lunch on the castle grounds, portraits in the gardens and then dinner and the party in the catacombs. We even had a swordfight in the middle of the night in our suit and wedding dress.
The Neuschwanstein castle is also used in the movie “ Chitty chitty bang bang “ with Dick van Dijck
I am not a castle expert either, but what I find interesting with some castles is that you can literally see how they developed. It starts with one very old building, then some hundered years later, it expanded and then expanded again. And again. I also find ruins of old castles very interesting, those make my mind wander. I have once stayed overnight in a "kind of a castle" in Sweden, and it was somewhat spooky. It didn´t really help that they gave us the "ghost tour" before dinner. Now, I AM a sceptic and don´t really believe in ghosts, but those mighty and old buildings makes me doubt... it is a very ambivalent thing. :)
As a kid our school trips mostly gone to a castle or another historic place. One time we went to a place called "druidenstein" what can be translated to druid stone. It was a big stony hill on wich in the 9th century the priests held there gatherings and also sacrificed humans.
When you grow up in the middle of so much history it's amazing
By the way there are more than 25.000 castles in Germany
*Well, there are a few castles, which definitely should have been on this list.......Schloss Herrenchiemsee [ Old Palace (Herrenchiemsee Abbey), New Palace ], Schloss Linderhof [ Linderhof Palace ], Schloss Nymphenburg [ Nymphenburg Palace ], Würzburger Residenz [ Würzburg Residence ], Nürnberger Burg [ Nuremberg Castle ], .............*
you might wanna take a look at burghausen castle, which holds the world record of the longest castle in the world. i am working in the old town of burghausen and still like the view at it every day
Damn cold is what it is... In summer the thick walls prevent the outside heat from coming in, but in winter they also absorb the inside heat. Plus, high ceilings mean that you are freezing. And no central heating of course... Plus, the real old ones have tiny windows. So it's a bit like living in a man-made cave, but without resident bears...
You can get a discount veion of the experience by staying at an old farmhouse... Walls 4 foot thick and 9 foot ceilings... Try heating that with an open fireplace (I tried for two years)...
Neuschwanstein is easily the most famous castle. But it's also a touristtrap at this point. There might be castles out there that give you a better visting experience.
The inside is dull and a waste of money.
Fun fact about Neuschwanstein castle:
There is a ballpark nearby, King's Field.
MLB even titled it something like
"The most beautiful ballpark in europe"
The dreamlike fairytale castle Neuschwanstein can be seen at the beginning of every Disney film and is the famous home of Cinderella.
I just visited Neuschwanstein a few weeks ago......in Japan! Near Himeji (mostly known for their impressive original Japanese castle....) is a kinda weird theme park named Taiyo Park, with a 2/3 scale replica of Neuschwanstein....
Never seen the real thing though, even when I have been in that area 😅
That is what is left of a greater Germany in former times...
In the second world war lots of historical buildings were destroyed....😢
Even in Finland are some castles, biggest ones still standing are Turun linna, Olavin linna, Suomen linna ja Hämeen linna
I have been to some of them but really the best one I've ever been to (in any country in Europe) is the last one. It is really breathtaking.
You should also check out guédelon castle. They are building it with the use of old techniques so they can study them.
I am from Schwerin and i can tell you that the Schwerin Castle is beautiful and is surrounded by a huge Garden. If you have the chance to see it, do it :D
We also have a nice Downtown right next to the castle.
It is totally worth a visit :)
Germany has the most maintained castles I think. They also maintain older features. You can find a lot of castles spread out over Europe btw (45,000 in france for instance).
I've spent a few nights in a monasty once and lived how they lived (except the praying) as a retreat. It's fun and very relaxing. Not a lot of light though. I regularly rent a part of a (smaller) castle as a B&B for me and my kids. Nothing compares to that imho.
The city I live close to, has a pretty famous castle. Charles V lived and has seen many things. The first fortification was made in the 9th century against pillaging vikings, went thorugh a lot of phases untill somewhat completed in the 15th century, only to be turned into a weaving factory and completely covered on the sided with houses and such. Now it's almost fully restored and turned into a museum for related topics (yes, also torture devices) and unique weaponry and armor. The week of the 21st of July, the whole of Ghent turns into one big festivity for ten days and the castle has numerous activities at that time. I've seen reinactments with genuine clothing, archery classes for visitors, blacksmiths whacking their sword into the castle wall just to prove they know their skill, chainmail covering being made, you name it.
Stayed in a castle tower once, tiny and a ceiling made of beams with a billion woodworm holes in them it felt very porous
Schwerin is my hometown. For me, of course, it's the most beautiful castle at all, even more beautiful than Neuschwanstein where I've also been several times.
Fun Fact: Neuschwanstein Castle was the inspiration for the Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland.
Visited the castle when my father was stationed out In West Germany in the 80s. Its unbelievable.
I'm missing the longest Castle of the world, which is the castle of Burghausen
We slept at the Ehrenburg in Brodenbach last year. I can only recommend it to everyone.
Greetings from Poland🇵🇱