“Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.” – Anne Frank
It will never cease to amaze the history around us here! Being from the Midwest, we had history and beautiful sites to see, but most were never preserved. I’m sure at one point it was destroyed on purpose, so it cannot be seen nor experienced. But there is the Trail of Tears, the Ozarks, and Cahokia Mounds to see at least. Here though, we can see so many castle ruins within a 30min driving radius. Heck, some places we’ve ate at and stayed in are older than the USA itself! I’m not the biggest history buff, but I do enjoy trying to envision how things use to look at different points in time. Cue Bavarian castle ruins! We still have many we can go to, but these have been some we have gone to already.
And FYI, since these are old fortresses, they usually have a somewhat steep walk, due to that being one of the protective measures when it was a fortress. Some of the photos it’s apparent or maybe only apparent from the photos we take when we are in the ruins and you can see the countryside!
Falkenberg Castle
I know, this doesn’t look like ruins, but up until the 1930s it was. In the 1930s Friedrich-Werner Graf von der Schulenburg, a German ambassador, bought the ruins and began restoring them. He had planned to live out his twilight years here, but was overcome by the injustice of WWII and the Nazi party. If you have ever seen the movie Valkyrie, then you have heard of the Hitler assassination attempt on the 20th of July in 1944. Schulenburg was listed as one of the conspirators in August then was sentenced and hanged in November, unable to write his memoirs and live out his years in his renovated castle. If you click they link above in the title, then you can read about the museum his nephew turned the castle into, his life, and the many uses of the castle today. If you plan to go and want the English tour, I know for certain one is at 1400 on Sundays and then there is one another time on Sundays, but I cannot remember the exact time. It’s a tie between Falkenberg and Flossenbürg for the spot of my favorite ruins visited.
Burgruine Waldeck (Schlossberg Waldeck)
These are Justin’s favorite ruins. The town had done a great job of providing a self guided walking tour. They have signs and QR codes to scan for information in Deutsch, English, and Czech. When we went, we got to walk past some goats and sheep, which Stella loved. On top of the ruins there are a few pews and a bell for when they have service there. There’s also a pavilion and benches where you could enjoy a picnic on a nice day. We went on a windy, rainy day to get out of the house. You can do the ‘long walk’, which is how the self guided tour starts, or you can just go straight up the path that looks like a gravel road on the right. (The link above is in Deutsch, but if you open it in Google Chrome you can translate the couple of paragraphs easily).
The surrounding area and the castle Waldeck were donated from the Emperor Heinrich II in 1008, In 1283, when the count Gebhard II von Leuchtenberg died, the Duke Ludwig II purchased the castle. The walking tour
Flossenbürg Castle Ruins
If you’ve heard of Flossenbürg Concentration Camp, then you’ll know where these ruins are. We went to the Concentration Camp Memorial and the Castle Ruins in the same, since they are across the small town from one another. Unless you know where to look, you can’t really tell where the Concentration Camp site is, but from the Memorial site you can see the ruins on a clear day. These castle ruins are from the late 900s.
In the beginning of the 19th century, the town opened a number of quarries. Consequently, this is why the National Socialists built Flossenbürg Concentration Camp here. They worked prisoners in the quarries to use the natural resources during the WWII. The link in the title mainly talks about the concentration camp because I cannot find a reputable source to site for the actual history of the castle.
Parkstein Castle Ruins
I know I have already mentioned these ruins here when I talked about the inactive volcano. But I do really enjoy going here! I took my best friend here while she was visiting and we went into the museum also, which was really well done. We learned about the volcano, ruins, and the church. It was quite interesting and I’d recommend it if you have an extra hour or so of time. Just before the hour they also show the ‘volcano explosion’. It was not what I was thinking so I don’t want to give anything away, but I’m glad we were there when one was done. Stella was kind of scared at first, but when it was all over couldn’t stop talking about it. I have et to find the cellars (Felsenkeller) under the church and in the volcano though!
These ruins were first mentioned in 1052 and called “Hohen Parkstein” and was used until 1759. In the museum they have the entire history you can read and watch videos about. What was most interesting to me was the story of the village during the 30 yeras war. They talk about how when the Swiss came to seize the village and all the villagers ran up into the fortress. Knowing they would eventually run out of food, the Swiss planned to wait them out at the bottom. When the villagers were about to run out of food, they hoped to outwit the Swiss. They threw their last day’s worth of food over the edge at the soldiers. Fearing that the villagers had more food than they had thought, they left. Gutsy move on the villagers’ part!
The link gives you the city’s page. If you click on the German flag at the top of the page, you will get more options and be able to read more about the ruins, but obviously it is in Deutsch. If you click the British flag, you can read what they have available in English, which is less than the Deutsch option.
So there you have it! A few of the castles we have visited thus far. We have about 6 inches of snow on the ground today so Stella’s preschool was cancelled and I’m glad I was able to get this post done. Stella is demanding Christmas music again though due to the snow. I need to get back on the writing wagon since we no longer have Christmas markets to visit and friends visiting.
Thanks for reading! Einen schönen Tag!
-Meghan
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