What a gorgeous broken-down castle! No really, the castle is in ruins, and will never be restored. The castle was built once before being destroyed in the Thirty-Years War and then subsequently rebuilt. After being rebuilt, in 1764 a tower was struck by lightning, causing a fire that burned down much of the castle. However, a large portion of it remains in the form of ruins, and it is truly quite beautiful.
What remains is gorgeous crimson red brick work. As Lucas puts it, one of the cool things about this castle is that it gives you a chance to look inside a castle from the outside, kind of
like a giant 3D model, but with cuts in the walls to let you see inside. Enough of it is intact that you can see and appreciate how everything was set up, but enough is gone that you can see what remains.
The walls of the castle are up to 2 meters (about 7 ft) thick in some places, making it impossible to be destroyed by cannon fire.
In the front of the castle is Elizabeth’s Gate. The story goes that when Friedrich married
Elizabeth, he had a gate built in her honor in a single night. Friedrich was quite a people person and handsome, and Elizabeth was very smart for her time and beautiful, so they made a perfect pair, and actually had a genuine love and happy marriage, despite it being an arranged marriage.
The castle has quite a complex history, and was continually added to over the years, giving
it various sections with different architectural inspirations. For instance, one part is heavily based on Roman influence, while others have a lot of gothic styling. It even has a large garden
built on top of hand made terraces, which were once considered the 8th wonder of the world. As I said earlier, the castle will never be fixed. Only one part was restored, after which there was much public outcry, which led to the decision to leave the castle as it currently is.
This lovely looking castle, even in ruins, was a large inspiration for many artists, musicians, and poets. Mark Twain for instance spent several weeks admiring the castle, as did many other people.
It is a gorgeous region, and is treasured by many of the Germans. Take a visit, and see for yourself!