Visiting Burg Hohenzollern

I hope no one's getting tired of seeing our castle visits. We've gone to several here in Germany, but we just haven't gotten bored with it yet. They are all different and we really enjoy seeing such beautiful examples of history.

Sam found out that we have a castle just up the road from us in Hechingen, which is only about 40 minutes away. It's called Burg Hohenzollern and was the home of the ruling family of Prussia, the Hohenzollerns, from 1871 to 1918. There is still an heir living that has some private rooms in the castle.

I looked up some of the history on Wikipedia and it said that the original castle was built in the early 11th century, but was completely destroyed in 1423.

The second castle, which was larger and sturdier, was built from 1454 to 1461. It was a refuge for the Hohenzollern family during wartime. By the end of the 18th century the castle had fallen into disrepair so some of the buildings were destroyed.

The third version of the castle, which we visited, was constructed by King Friedrich Wilhelm IV between 1846 and 1867. Because the castle was built to be merely a family memorial, no member of the Hohenzollern family took residence in this third castle until 1945, when it became home to the last Prussian Crown Prince Wilhelm. Prince Wilhelm and his wife Crown Princess Cecile are buried there. Anyhow, that gives a little bit of history on it.

After going to church in the morning we changed our clothes and headed to the castle. It was such a beautiful fall day. Gorgeous blue sky, crisp air and perfect temperature. It surprised us that a castle this big could be just down the road from us. We hadn't even heard about it. As we got closer we saw it standing out against the sky on top of the hill. They really knew how to strategically place those castles, so they were pretty much protected on all sides. They are really amazing pieces of architecture to see.

Once we parked we were told that we could walk up the hill to the castle or take a bus. We decided to take the bus up and walk down later. This ended up being a really good idea. The hill would have been quite a climb and I have blisters just from the walk down.

This castle is in awesome shape. It's really been taken care of and is beautiful. We spent quite a bit of time walking around the grounds. Later in the afternoon we took a tour of the inside. It was interesting, but I didn't get much of what the tour guide said since it was in German and I didn't get a lot from Sam's interpretation. Of course, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside the castle, so here are some pictures from our walk through the castle grounds.

This is the entrance to the castle. This walkway spirals up to the next level.

We asked someone to take a picture of us. Unfortunately it turned out a little blurry.

There's a courtyard that surrounds the whole castle. Sam was sitting on the courtyard wall and you can see how high up this is built.

These statues of all the former kings line the walls of the castle.

Sam and I standing in the courtyard.

Looking out the window of a guard tower.

A castle tower in the background (I think this was the tower the church was in).

This knocker was on the door of the church located on the grounds.

This shows how 'pet friendly' Germany is. These bowls are specifically for giving the dogs water.

Standing in line waiting for the tour to begin.

Going down a spiral staircase to the underground rooms.

Walking through the underground rooms.

The end of our castle tour. We were on the path heading back down the hill.