Burg Hohenzollern

“Hohenzollern Castle is the ancestral castle of the Hohenzollern family, one of the most well known dynasties in Germany. From the nucleus of a tiny chapel dedicated to St. Michael in 1061, the castle grew. The castle fell twice to bombardment of catapults, and assaults by archers and swordsmen and was leveled to the ground. Kaisers, Kings and Queens from the Hohenzollern Family throughout Europe have roots at this castle...Friedreich the Great of Prussia once lived here.”

A couple of weeks ago we had the opportunity to visit and tour the Hohenzollern Castle. As always we were excited to learn about the history of Germany!

Once at the castle, we were escorted directly to the “Ancestral Hall”. The walls are covered (literally) with the family tree. Imagine being able to (at a glance) trace your ancestry back to the year 1061!

Our group continued on thru the library. The library contains hand-carved oak cupboards, paintings of Wilhelm Peters, a painter of historical scenes, decorates the walls. These scenes depict myths and events in the history of the first two castles built on this site. The first castle built in the 11th century, was completely destroyed in 1423 after a siege of ten months. The second castle was never destroyed in battle, but after the family had moved their residence to Hechingen and the Castle was neglected and fell in to disrepair. Directly below the library windows is seating with small tables for each reader. As with all of our tours, our imaginations wandered and we thought of days gone by ... sitting in this library on one of these seats and gazing out one of the windows to the valley and plain below! What sights would have been viewed during those times?

We continued on thru the Royal Apartments. It is simply amazing to walk in the steps where Royalty once lived! At one point, my husband and I passed before a mirror in one of the Royal dressing rooms. We both glanced in the mirror and our eyes met...I turned to my husband and said, “...I half expected to see a face from the past looking back at me!” My husband echoed my thoughts...both of our imaginations running wild!

We strolled through the Castle Garden and were treated to vast panoramic view of the valley below. There are numerous villages which dot the Neckar landscape reminding us of a colorful painting. In the background, lies the Black Forest mountains. Simply amazing! We leave the Castle Garden and the courtyard and walk directly behind the Defence Tower and Bastions. There are eight bronze statues of the Brandenburg-Prussian rulers. After leaving the Bastions we turn and see two stone battlement guards in medieval battle dress. They appear as though they will move at any moment!

We were fortunate on this particular day to witness knights doing battle in the courtyard! It was very warm this day and the amount of energy used by these knights during their swordplay is unfathomable. Their swords are large and heavy and I can only imagine the difficulty in wielding such a weapon during battle.

It is always interesting to us that we are living in an area of the world where we are only "minutes from a location where historical events that affected the world are available to us! It is as though we are physically walking through the pages of an encyclopedia! Topics that have only previously been read about, are now alive!" Coming from and being educated in the United States, we have only read about these places we are now seeing and touring! It never ceases to amaze us!