The Lichtenstein Castle: An Obsession Unlike Any Other…

with 14 Comments

 

Castles have always held a hypnotic power over me. Not so long ago, Mei nurtured my obsession and tracked down one of the most naturally light-colored stone castles in the world: the Lichtenstein Castle in Baden-Württemberg, Germany’s Swabian Jura.

 

Leaving the Hohenzollern Castle behind us, we drove for 40 minutes under a cerulean sky. Despite the many detours due to the carnival parades, the meandering roads finally led us to the filming location of Dornröschen, a German adaptation of the popular fairytale Sleeping Beauty.

 

Now imagine a gigantic precipitous rock, which rises straight up from the depths. On top of it, a white tower defies altitude, overlooking the Echaz river way, way below. Impassible as a silent guardian, it peers down to the lowlands. Its ragged rocks and steep walls plunge in such an unconceivable angle that we watched the towering structure on the escarpment with disbelief. Is this for real? Wrapped in complete isolation, 817 meters above sea level, the Lichtenstein Castle really seems… unreal.

 

Out of nowhere, I felt a tug at my sleeve. A little girl asked if she could get into the castle to visit the princess. Her mother smiled apologetically and whispered: “My daughter is really obsessed with castles and princesses”. I cracked a polite smile. There are thousands of ways to deal with an obsession. Ignoring it would be one of the options. Delightfully giving into the yielding yet another one.

 

Just like that girl, I’ve always been obsessed with castles. But not in a fairytelling way though. I never dreamt of becoming a princess, nor meeting one. I was an adventurous kid, always invested with a mission. One of the recurrent quests was to locate the secret pathway to another dimension. I saw myself explore hidden cisterns and underground tunnels – I did in fact explore sunken places that were scary and festered with muskrats.

 

 

I never came out empty handed. At least I’d come up with a stone. But not just any stone. It was a piece of the building, of the whole, a trophy, a memento. A stone was never just a stone. It had color, texture, markings, etchings even. It could behold magical power. Bring back the dead or provide you with super powers for example. It soon became evident that showing my treasures to adults was pointless. They couldn’t get it. Whether I showed them marble, quartz, slate or basalt, they would always feign enthusiasm and coin the exhibited mineral as stone. Pointless.

 

Contemplating the Lichtenstein Castle, I suddenly realized that this “Shining Stone Castle” gathers three of my obsessions: castles, stones, and literature. In fact, the castle as we know it today exists only because one man dreamt it up in his novel. And this man was Wilhelm Hauff, the German “Walter Scott”.

 

 

When Hauff’s book was published in 1826, the original medieval castle was long destroyed. Nevertheless, it was this bestseller that prompted the construction of the actual Lichtenstein Castle in 1840-1842. While reading the book, the German patriot Duke Wilhelm von Urach fell in love with the fictional castle. He then inquired about buying the estate, which was merely crumbling ruins in 1836. Four years later, he commissioned Carl Alexander Heideloff to design an emulation of Hauff’s fantasy castle, which was to be built on top of the medieval castle’s foundations.

 

This modern castle is everything one could expect of the German Gothic revival. It perfectly embodies the romantic infatuation with medieval structures…

 

As we finally walked back to the entrance court, past crenelated towers, parapets, ivy-grown walls, punctuated by occasional antlers, I felt like strolling through 19th century romantic literature, with a local Swabian touch. It was all there. Every pitched roof and roof gable perspired romanticism. To celebrate the sheer beauty of human imagination, we kissed at the entrance gate, right below the coat of arms of the dukes of Urach.

 

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The Lichtenstein Castle, an obsession unlike any other © Travelwithmk.com

 

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Writer - Teacher - Storyteller

Kerstin is a French and Spanish teacher, born and raised in a tiny Luxembourgish village. Fluent in 5 languages, she's above all a huge book enthusiast, a fervent storyteller and a published author. When traveling, she loves exploring natural wonders and cultural sites on long road trips.

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14 Responses

  1. Sandy N Vyjay
    | Reply

    The Lichtenstein Castle seems to have pooped out straight from the pages of a fairy tale. It is as if you can expect a knight in armour or a damsel in distress to emerge from the ramparts of the castle at any moment. Lovely experience to visit I am sure.

  2. Rocio
    | Reply

    A memento! Nice your description of your experiences! I can imagine and understand what means your dream came true! I have so many and I feel the same when I realize! Anyway I hear about this castle and I have been in Germany different time but never went there! I need to travel more in Europe!!!

  3. Meg Jerrard
    | Reply

    This is like the definition of a fairytale castle! I cracked a smile reading about the little girl who wanted to visit the princess, because it’s an obsession many of us never grow out of 😀 Love castles also, and Germany has some incredible ones!

  4. Karla
    | Reply

    I was only here for a brief time but your pictures captured everything. I wish I had more time.

  5. Indrani
    | Reply

    My kids too are fascinated by castles! It amazes me how the kings built such beautiful castles so many centuries back with no technology.
    I have visited some, the interiors always seem magical to me. Lichtenstein castle seems like a dream!

  6. SherianneKay
    | Reply

    I am in love with castle hunting and have missed this one. In fact it wasn’t even on my radar, how can that be???? Pinning and visiting!

    • Mei and Kerstin
      | Reply

      We didn’t know about Lichtenstein Castle neither before! Initially, we wanted to visit Neuschwanstein Castle, but ended up staying in Baden-Württemberg, since there are sooo many castles in this region! 🙂

  7. Dorene
    | Reply

    WOW! your photos are fantastic thanks for the walk through time, Lichtenstein is on my list!

  8. Linda Aksomitis
    | Reply

    Like your daughter, I love castles! They draw me back to visit Europe again and again. The medieval period in history is rich with stories and castles, of course, are central to all of them. I find modern castles, like this one, are still intriguing even if they don’t have as many ghosts walking their corridors.

    • Mei and Kerstin
      | Reply

      Haha… I don’t have a daughter, Linda! I was talking about a little girl who stood next to me, and who asked her mother if she could visit the princess inside the Lichtenstein Castle. She reminded me of myself, since I was also obsessed with castles when I was a kid. 🙂 But thank you for your comment, though.

  9. Jetsettera
    | Reply

    I went to baden-Wurtenberg for a school trip in high-school. I wish they would have showed us this place. It would have been a great experience to explore it!

  10. thetravelleaf
    | Reply

    This is such a majestic place. I haven’t heard of the Lichtenstein Castle before, but it definitely looks like a place worth visitng. And such beautiful pictures 🙂

  11. Sarah Ebner
    | Reply

    What a beautifully written post. I also love castles and always have (like the little girl), but not so much for the princesses, but for the stories they contain, and simply the magnificence of the buildings. Glad to add this on to my list!

    • Mei and Kerstin
      | Reply

      Thank you, Sarah! If you like castles, you should definitely go to Baden-Würrtemberg. Lichtenstein is just one of the many awesome castles we visited during our road trip. 🙂

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