Württemberg Castle of Lichtenstein - Herzöge von Württemberg

[Claudio]

Dear Forumites,

I promised in my previous thread about the Burg of Hohenzollern (Hechingen), that I would show another beautiful castle that I found almost by coincidence on the internet. I wanted to visit because it is located just about 40 km North East from Hechingen and was on our way. I am talking about the castle of Lichtenstein, bearing the name of a respectable and noble family which owned the castle until the 17th century. The castle was then in the 1st half of the 19th century being bought by Count Wilhelm of Württemberg (cousin of King Wilhelm of Württemberg).

Here is the link : http://www.schloss-lichtenstein.de/english/

Not only the architecture, evoking such most beautiful example of German romantic neo-Gothic knight's castle, I had the the pleasure to be surprisingly amazed by a little but fine collection of period paintings and quite most importantly, a very nice collection of mid 19th century German orders owned by one of the family members of the counts .

The castle has been competely being restored in more phases since the 80ies, culminating in the last works of late 90ies-beginning of 2000, being quite significantly sponsored by public and private funds (of the count's dinasty still going on today).

Here is an overview of the castle: http://www.schloss-lichtenstein.de/english/galerie.php

Here below pictures of some totally renovated halls and painstakingly painted walls.

More to follow...

Edited October 19, 2013 by Claudio

[Claudio]

My brother staying next a partially ruined mirror with a bullet hole... that was still original. Apparently in the end of WW2 in April 1945, many German retraiting soldiers of different disbanded units were taking refuge in the valleys of the Swabian alps. The Americans were pursuing them and in the process, bombing and shooting everything they found on their way. The castle evidently was on their path and therefore was quite heavely damaged... like more of the old and medioeval German cities, that nowadays would proudly bear the badge of "protected by the UNESCO" sites (most still are, see Dresden, Lübeck, Magdeburg, Danzig, Königsberg, Breslau, ecc...) Most of the destruction of such beautiful sites happened in the last weeks of WW2, when war was already won. What you see today (like Nürnberg or Munich) is not old but re-build in the 50ies... it is still beautiful, but as we collector would say.... a mere fake!

What a shame that such war had to be... for all beautiful old Europe!!!

[Claudio]

Pictures of the castle outside... amazing! The main castle is staying on the brink of a rock with a estonishingly beautiful panorama of the valley. Incredible! Too bad the weather was so cloudy and foggy, typical fall weather... but the lady at the entrance was so kind to let us inside at 5 PM (wasn't quite easy to find it) the castle and joining the last guided tourist group. So we could admire this castle until 6 PM... we could have stayed there much longer... :-(

[Claudio]

The best (at least for us collectors) for last! ;-)

The guide, quite competent, but ignorant of phaleristics, as I pointed out the beautiful painting of the count of Württemberg in the uniform of a Major of the 1. Württembergisches Dragoner Regiment "Königin Olga" (See:

Please feel free to add your pictures or comments, which are always most appreciated!

ciao,

Claudio

[Claudio]

[Ostuf]

Beatiful places and great pictures! Thank you Claudio

[Paul C]

Claudio, Thank you for taking the time to do this post. I really enjoyed it and I know it is a great deal of work to post all the pictures. Great Job.

[Claudio]

It's a pleasure to post for fine military history enthusiasts like you and the forumites on GMIC...

Edited October 19, 2013 by Claudio

[VtwinVince]

Danke Dir, Claudio, those are absolutely fantastic.

[P.F.]

A breath taking view from the castle...not to mention breath taking treasures within!

Thanks for showing these Claudio!

Kind regards

Pierce