Category: Germany
Fairytale-esque Schloss Neuschwanstein (Neuschwanstein Castle), nestled on the north fringes of the Bavarian Alps, shapes a trademark of Germany and is without a doubt one of the most famed and photographed castles worldwide.
The Romanesque Revival edifice perches on a rugged hill over Hohenschwangau (west/northwest), a former village integrated into the municipality of Schwangau nowadays, in the region of Swabia in southern Bavaria on the border with Austria (south).
Its name translates as ‘New Swan Stone/Rock’ and surfaced on account of the original medieval Schwanstein Castle that lay below which was obtained in ruins by Maximilian II, King of Bavaria, to raise his neo-Gothic palace of Schloss Hohenschwangau in place by means of summer residence, virtually completed in 1837.
His eldest son and heir King Ludwig II of Bavaria (1845 – 1886) spent much of his childhood there and was fond of the location so when he came to power in 1864 he opted to commission a new palace himself as a retreat from the constraints of public life and affairs, as well as in honour of renowned classical composer Richard Wagner whom he admired greatly.
On the rugged hill overlooking his father’s summer palace stood a further two ruined medieval castles, Vorderhohenschwangau and Hinterhohenschwangau, that Ludwig would often visit as a child on excursions so picked this spot for his own resort.
Construction of the new schloss, drafted by stage engineer Christian Jank in order to bear a flair of opera and the middle ages, eventually commenced in September 1869 under architect Eduard Riedel but the project had to take many twists and turns on the way on account of either the configuration of the location or Ludwig’s own boundless ambition.
Eventually, the Bavarian king was able to move in the yet unfinished Palas only in 1884, with Julius Hofmann assigned as a third architect in charge following a ten-year stint by Georg von Dollmann, and could invite his mother Marie on the occasion of her 60th birthday a year on with exterior works still in progress.
To his credit, Ludwig funded his large project all these long years out of his own fortune and finances as well as sizeable loans rather than draw on public Bavarian funds. Even as many as 300 craftsmen and workers would be occupied at the same time on the spot many times drawing deep into the night at the light of oil lamps.
Unfortunately, he never lived to see the completion of his masterpiece as he was taken under custody, deposed, and died along with his doctor under mysterious circumstances in mid June 1886 while the schloss itself was opened to the public just weeks later at the order of Prince Regent Luitpolt.
The current name of the castle, Neuschwanstein, came along only after the death of Ludwig who employed himself that of Neuhohenschwangau Schloss thereto during his reign and later life.
The Hall of the Singers
Decorated with themes from Lohengrin, Tannhäuser and Parzival, the captivating Hall of the Singers shapes the largest room across the entire Palas as it measures no less than a good 27 x 10m (89 x 33 ft) occupying the entire fourth floor, above the king’s lodgings, of the eastern wing.
In essence, the room was never meant for large banquets or music performances but rather as an accolade to the knights and legends of Ludwig’s beloved era of the Middle Ages, a favourite project of his.
Hamburg City Hall (Hamburger Rathaus in German) lies on Rathausmarkt (City Hall Market) Square and near the Hamburg Hauptbahnhof (Hamburg Central Station) in the quarter of Alstadt in the center of Hamburg, northern Germany.
The edifice was designed by no less than seven architects headed by Martin Haller and required a good eleven years to construct between 1886 and 1897 so that it would eventually replace the old counterpart that was destroyed decades earlier during the great fire of 1842.
Neo-Renaissance in semblance, it features an arresting tower that stands 117m high and contains a good 436 steps all the way up reflecting the bloom of the Kingdom of Prussia following their military success against the French in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871) and the emergence of the German Empire (Deutsches Kaiserreich) in 1871.
Schloss Drachenburg is a villa fashioned as a palace and sits on Drachenfels (hill) at the town of Königswinter, south of Bonn in North Rhine-Westphalia (western Germany).
Drachenfels means ‘Dragon’s Rock’ and Drachenburg follows as ‘Dragon’s Castle’ since, according to the legend, it was on this hill that legendary hero Siegfried (or Sigurðr in Norse) slain the dragon Fafnir, a name that appears in Old Norse sources.
The edifice was commissioned by banker-cum-entrepreneur Stephan von Sarter who worked his way through the ranks to rack up a fortune and eventually laid claim on nobility as a baron in 1881.
Architects Bernhard Tüshaus and Leo von Abbema were initially employed as construction commenced in 1882 but von Sarter shifted horses midstream, apparently falling out with them, in favour of Paris-based Wilhelm Hoffman to be completed two years later (1884).
Following von Sarter’s death in 1902, his nephew Jacob Hubert Biesenbach envisaged the property as a potential tourist attraction to buy out all shares among the legatees of the baron’s will; yet, he didn’t enjoy much success and handed it over to Egbert von Simon (1910) who did but was killed in action during World War I.
After shifting hands and functions over decades, even becoming a school of Adolph Hitler’s in 1940, the schloss fell out of use and into decline in the late 1950s before it would up in the hands of the State of North-Rhine in the late 1980s undergoing lengthy substantial refurbishment, following up on earlier work by interim owner Paul Spinat.
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Although translated in English as such, the word ‘castle’ doesn’t quite render German ‘schloss,’ or ‘Schloß,’ properly as the latter carries a sense closer to French ‘château,’ indicating a palace or manor house that may be fortified or not.
It is not a castle as such that is.
Sanssouci is a royal palace in Potsdam, Brandenburg in northeast nowadays Germany, that was built by Prussian king Frederick the Great (1712 – 1786) as his summer palace and resort between 1745 and 1747 on the crest of a terraced hill.
Often referred to as the ‘Prussian Versailles,’ the palace’s name is actually a French phrase, namely ‘sans souci,’ that translates as ‘carefree’ or ‘untroubled’ to convey its function as a retreat rather than a governing seat.
Saturated with a Rococo flair, the complex was designed and construction commenced under Prussian architect Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff (1699 – 1753), furnished with temples and follies aplenty around its grounds, but after an argument with the king over the layout of the palace he was replaced by Dutch Jan Bouman in 1746, who went on to complete the centrepiece.
Sanssouci isn’t quite a sizeable structure but more of resembles a large ground-floor villa, comprising a mere ten principal rooms in enfilade, and is located on the east side of the dedicated namesake park, overlooking a five-tier terraced vineyard rolling out below.
His ‘little vineyard house,’ as he endeared the palace, Frederick meant it for an intimate getaway where he could indulge in his personal and artistic interests along with entertaining special guests soaking up the beauty of the scenery around.
The north façade shaped the main entrance to the palace that featured a crescent cour d’honneur (court of honour) of two segmented colonnades where the Picture Gallery, Frederick a passionate painting collector himself, was set up to the east between 1755 and 1764 in the supervision of Johann Gottfried Büring.
Furthermore, the New Chambers for guests were added to the west between 1771 and 1775, balancing out the palace’s layout, while the far larger baroque Neues Palais (New Palace) was raised on the far western side of the park between 1763 and 1769 by means of demonstration of Prussia’s power and grandeur following up the end of the Seven Years’ War.
The following century, king Frederick William IV had the palace revamped under Prussian architect Ludwig Persius while fellow Karl Friedrich Schinkel student Ferdinand von Arnim was assigned to polish up the grounds.
Breaking through History 