Wilkommen!

Enter the world of German castles and live the fantasy!  Follow the tour, and perhaps one day you will get your own chance to explore these unique structures. 

Germany was on the eastern edge of the Holy Roman Empire established by Charlemagne in 800 A.D. To help govern this far-flung entity, he gradually ensconced or endorsed local leaders who became the backbone of the nobility in Germany, and in order to repel raids and incursions by Danes, Saxons, and Magyars these nobles built a host of castles and towers. As a result, over 15,000 castles of various types and sizes dot the landscape of an area the size of Georgia and South Carolina.

If you are planning a trip to Germany, there are a few things you can do to keep your costs down.  See my "Tips on Driving" section, and then the sub-section within on "Other Survival Tips."

A few notes about the site and its organization:

About German usage on this site.  I am fully aware of the use of umlauts in German, but unfortunately the text editor of this system does not allow for ASCI usage of these.  I could have gone through something like Word to type up each section and then copy it into a text box, but this was simply too much work.  I also could have used additional letters to write out the umlaut, but I've never cared for this approach.

Illustrations:

Nördlingen -- could be typed "Noerdlingen."  Yuck!  Therefore, I've left it as Nordlingen.

Lützen -- could be typed "Luetzen."  Not as bad as Noerdlingen, but still bad.  I've left it as Lutzen.

Now a note about the organization of the site.  I have grouped the photos into broad areas, and at this time (Sep. 2009) some of the pages have only one representative photograph of a particular castle posted.  The pages will be expanded over time, but this takes work and I have other projects to focus on as well.  As such, this site is a labor of love more than anything else, so I hope those who view this site enjoy it!

About the maps used.  These came from a German school atlas c1938 that belonged to my mother.  Use of the older atlas provides a touch of historical class to the site.

With all this said, go back to home and enjoy the tour!

What's New as of 23 April 2013

I have added a new section for the area of Sachsen-Anhalt, which includes the Harz Mountains. The page works but the links to individual castles are not yet done. I will be working these over the next weeks and adding photos. Once completed there will be close to 275 castles featured on this site.

And yes.... a new trip to Germany is coming soon!

A few comments are in order regardng the historical notes on the various pages.  These were derived from a variety of sources, some on the web, some from the locations themselves, and some from other manuscripts or sources I have collected over the years.  However, in many cases I cannot vouch for their complete accuracy, as I was often unable to confirm the historical information either from archival materials or from the sites themselves.  Therefore, some errors might be present in these and are used here primarily to give the reader some perspective regarding a given castle.  With that said, I believe the historical notes are good enough to provide a sufficient overview.