Last week, we visited the Hohenzollern palace, and this week we will explore The Hohenzollern castle. The castle is about 30 minutes drive from the palace in the region of Baden-W眉rttemberg throning on top of the hill Hohenzollern overlooking the surroundings.
We have visited this castle already, but it was many years ago and we couldn't remember it much. We remembered that we could only visit it with a guide, and that we had to put on gigantic slippers which were funny, but not so easy for walking. Let's see if it's still the same!
It is recommended to book the tickets online in advance of your visit, and this is also encouraged by the price of tickets. When you order online you will pay 22 EUR per person while at the ticket office it is 25 EUR per person. I purchased our tickets during the week and we were ready to go on Sunday.
It was a beautiful sunny day, and we enjoyed driving through Baden-W眉rttemberg. We were surrounded by colorful fields, thick forests and small villages until we saw the castle proudly towering on the hill in front of us. Suddenly, I remembered that it was quite a walk from the parking to the castle...
And I was not wrong! There are several parking spots starting at the foot of the hill, and going up to approximately middle of the hill. There were many cars parked down the hill, but we continued up until we got to the sign showing us that this was the last chance for us to park. There were still a few parking slots left, so we were lucky.
It is about 600 meters walk from the parking, but all signs tell you to reserve about 20-25 minutes which was a clear hint that it's not an easy walk. And yes, it was challenging. When we thought we were almost there we saw yet another staircase going up and up and up. It's about 150 meters gain in altitude on such a short distance.
There is also a free shuttle bus going to the castle, but if you know me a bit then you know that this was never an option for us 馃檪
We forgot the hike and all the sweat as soon as we saw the castle above us. We made it and it was gorgeous!
The castle is still in the possession of the descendants of the Hohenzollern family, and it is occasionally used by them as their private residence, so it is possible to get to the top by car too. The rest of us have to walk there, but it is worth it.
The organization changed and while you can still book a tour guide if you are part of a larger group, today you will get an audio guide which will take you through the castle, and there are also members of staff in each room ready to answer your questions. If you want to use the audio guide you need to download an audio app. Unfortunately, there are no gigantic slippers anymore.
There is a long wide road leading us to the top of the castle through draw bridges and gates giving us amazing views of the castle from inside as well as outside.
The road was designed in a way that carriages could easily cross it. It is 25 meters ascend from the main gate to the courtyard - like we didn't walk enough already!
This is not the first castle that was built by the Hohenzollern family on this site. The oldest construction dates back to more than 1000 years ago however it was destroyed in the 15th century. Another castle was built here shortly after the disaster, but fell into ruin in the 18th century.
The current castle was built by The King Friedrich Wilhelm in the 19th century, so it's relatively young. It took more than 25 years to finish the castle. History
Let's walk up the fortress to the residential part of the castle...
We finally reached The Eagle Gate which is also known as The Gate Tower, and it forms the entrance to the top part of the castle. It is only a short walk to the courtyard from here.
On the way to the courtyard we passed by the garden restaurant and knew that this is where we were to have our dinner that day.
The inner castle courtyard is so big that it didn't fit in one photo 馃檪 From here we will enter all publicly available buildings in the castle complex.
It is situated 855 meters above the sea level and we will get amazing views of the region from here, but first let's us look around us.
On the left side of the courtyard is the statue of The King Friedrich Wilhelm IV. of Prussia who is the builder of the current castle complex.
The Former Fortified House on the right of the courtyard houses the castle administration, the restaurant and the souvenir shop. We bought some royal themed photo frames and they have many other cool things, so check it out when you're there.
Above the entrance to the residential part is the life-sized statue of Jobst Nikolaus I., Count of Hohenzollern who carries the model of the second castle that he built.
Let's look at the views before we go in!
The castle is located between Stuttgart and the lake Constance and we can see the entire region from here.
Black forest was in front of us, and Switzerland is on the far left...
A perfect day to visit the castle!
It's a hot day, so let's go inside and walk up the stairs to The Ancestral Hall!
The walls in The Ancestral Hall are decorated with the family tree of the Hohenzollern dynasty. The dynasty goes back to the 11th century. We can see red and blue colors on the family tree. Red belongs to the Swabian branch and blue to the Franconian branch. The descendants of the dynasty are listed here up to the present day.
This is a huge family tree!
We will pass the door guarded by Friedrich II., Count of Hohenzollern to The Count's Hall.
The Count's Hall is the largest and most representative room in the castle. It is also my favorite room. Feel free to take photos, but don't forget to stay on the red carpet 馃檪
The design of the room is inspired by a church in Paris. It can be seen on the architecture of the ceiling.
It is richly decorated with marble pillars and golden details. Up until now it is used for banquets and other events held in the castle.
The Count's Hall is leading us to The Library.
This is a beautiful room that doesn't look like a library to me. There are wooden cabinets attached to the wall on the left and many murals depicting religious as well as historical events.
All items are protected by an alarm, and this is where we heard it for the first time. Somebody was taking a photo too close to an object which triggered an alarm. It happened plenty of times during our visit. The staff explained that the alarm is very sensitive to protect the items.
Can you see the writings on the painting on the right? You would say that it shows the year 1853, right? It actually is not an eight but a half eight, so the year is 1453. This is the way how the number four was written at that time.
Next part that we will see is The King's Apartment. It consists of his living room and bedroom. The residential rooms of the royalty in the castle are very small, and you would never think that they belonged to the King. This is one of the differences between the Hohenzollern castle and the Hohenzollern palace which is much more representative.
On this portrait we can see the King Wilhelm I. of Prussia. He became the first German emperor. His arms were not equally long which is hidden on this portrait (his left arm was shorter).
All rooms in the apartment were connected to The Queen's rooms.
The King's bedroom was only used once for a longer time. It was when Prince Wilhelm I. stayed there for a couple of months after the World War II.
The castle's inventory doesn't mention a bed in this bedroom, so there probably never was one. In the 18th and 19th centuries it was common to carry a camp bed while travelling.
The porcelain in this room was specifically designed for the royal family in a porcelain factory in Berlin. These are original pieces from the factory.
The Valet's room is attached directly to the King's apartment as they had a close relationship of trust and the valet was responsible for King's garderobe and maintenance of his quarters.
We are entering The Queen's Chambers now. The first chamber is The Bedroom which is much bigger than the King's one.
This room also contains a huge mirror which was a status symbol at that time as the mirrors of this size were difficult to produce and were also very expensive.
The most important objects in this room are the original portraits of the royal family.
The Queen's parlour is one of the most expensive chambers in the castle. The floor consists of five different types of wood and the ceiling is highly decorated too.
It is also called The Blue Salon because of the blue furniture and it used to serve as a living room and study of the Queen.
The Queen's Reception Room was used to enter the queen's quarters. It is a long hall decorated with red, blue and gold.
The bust in the hall depicts the King Wilhelm I. I guess he had to overlook everything, even the chambers of his wife.
From here, we will walk up the stairs to another residential part of the castle where we will find the rooms of The Prince and The Princess.
This bedroom didn't have a bed either 馃檪
Also this porcelain set was designed specifically for the royal family.
Do you remember the chandeliers in Sigmaringen? These are more compact and less pompous.
I wouldn't mind to work from a room with such views...
This dining set is originally from the sailing boat of the royal family...
From the residential chambers we walked down to The Cellars. It was nice and refreshing there 馃檪 We could admire The Plate Room which was used as the storage room, but today it contains historical silverware. For obvious reasons, we could only see the objects from behind the glass door.
And my husband's favorite part of the tour - Casemates!
The casemates were bomb-proofed, so they were also used as as shelter in addition to storage of ammunition and food.
The oldest casemates on the castle date back to the 15th century. They run through the entire castle and we were able to walk through a part of them.
The exit from the casemates was in the lower part of the castle, and we had to walk back up to the restaurant. On the way, we stopped by the outer walls and enjoyed the views a little longer.
We also visited The Treasure Room with royal jewelery, but we were not allowed to take photos there.
Once we finished our dinner we walked back to the car. The walk back was down the hill and took us less than 10 minutes. The car was all day in the sun, so we stepped in our private sauna and drove back home 馃檪
I hope, you have enjoyed another day with us.
Thank you for reading!
Cheers,
Martina
