The Most Beautiful 19th-Century Castles in Europe
5 places in 4 countries · updated 13 October 2026
In short: By our ranking, the most beautiful 19th-century castles in Europe are Lichtenstein Castle (Germany), Neuschwanstein Castle (Germany) and Miramare Castle (Italy). The list covers 5 19th-century castles in 4 countries. Germany has the most, with 2. Last updated 13 October 2026.
In this list
| # | Place | Type | Country | UNESCO |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lichtenstein Castle | Castle | Germany | |
| 2 | Neuschwanstein Castle | Palace | Germany | ✓ |
| 3 | Miramare Castle | Castle | Italy | |
| 4 | De Haar Castle | Castle | Kingdom of the Netherlands | |
| 5 | Château de Chantilly | Castle | France |
01 Lichtenstein Castle
Schloss Lichtenstein
Germany48.407° N 9.258° E
Image by osmanzoellner from Pixabay The castle was designed by Carl Alexander Heideloff and built in 1840–1842 on the foundations of a late-medieval castle of 1390, itself a successor to an older fortress whose ruins lie about 500 metres away. The site is dramatic: about 817 metres above sea level and some 250 metres above the Echaz. Later additions include a barbican and an outer bailey with bastions and turrets built in 1857, and caponiers modelled on those of the Fortress of Ulm, added by the count, a keen artillery officer.
Did you know? The first castle on the rock went up around 1100 and was destroyed twice, in 1311 and again between 1377 and 1381.
02 Neuschwanstein Castle
Schloss Neuschwanstein
Germany47.557° N 10.749° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Image by derwiki from Pixabay Underneath the turrets it was surprisingly modern for its decade: running water on every floor, forced-air central heating, and telephone lines connecting rooms — comforts most contemporary castles in Europe didn't have, hidden behind walls designed to look centuries older. None of it was paid for with state money; Ludwig financed construction almost entirely through personal loans and his private fortune, which is exactly what fed the rumours of financial recklessness his ministers used to have him declared mentally unfit in 1886.
Did you know? The first design came from Christian Jank, a theatre scenery painter, rather than from an architect.
03 Miramare Castle
Castello di Miramare
Italy · 7.7 km from Trieste45.702° N 13.712° E
Image by bogitw from Pixabay Those interiors are the reason to come, because they survive almost as the couple arranged them, with mid-19th-century furniture and objects still in place; a photographic record the archduke commissioned made the arrangement possible to reconstruct. On the ground floor his bedroom and study copy the cabin and stern wardroom of the frigate Novara, the warship that circumnavigated the globe in 1857 to 1859 under his command. The library is lined floor to ceiling with books, and the archduchess Charlotte's rooms are hung with pale blue silk.
Did you know? He left for Mexico on 14 April 1864 aboard the frigate Novara, the same ship whose cabins his rooms at Miramare imitate.
04 De Haar Castle
Kingdom of the Netherlands · 9.5 km from Utrecht52.121° N 4.986° E
Paul van de Velde from Netherlands · CC BY 2.0 The architect was Pierre Cuypers, the man behind the Rijksmuseum and Amsterdam Centraal, who worked on De Haar from 1892 to 1912. He kept the surviving medieval fabric and built a Gothic Revival fortress over and around it: moats, drawbridges, a cluster of towers and steep roofs, and inside a lofty galleried hall, carved wood, painted vaults and some 200 rooms with 30 bathrooms. Behind the medieval costume sat the latest comforts of the day, electric light from the castle's own generator and steam central heating. The kitchens still hold a vast battery of copper pots, the largest such set left in the country.
Did you know? The castle holds a collection of some 4,000 objects, including top-quality 16th-century tapestries, liveries and silverware.
05 Château de Chantilly
France · 38.6 km from Paris49.194° N 2.486° E
Image by Zoeysnowflying from Pixabay The estate's great century began when it passed in 1632 to the Grand Condé, the general who made Chantilly a rival to royal residences. André Le Nôtre laid out the gardens for him, organising water rather than flowerbeds into the main event - long canals, basins and cascades set on a grand axis. Chantilly's hospitality became legend, and so did its most famous casualty: in 1671, during a visit by Louis XIV, the maître d'hôtel François Vatel is said to have taken his own life when the fish for the feast seemed not to be arriving. Later additions softened the formality, among them the rustic Hameau of the 1770s, a cluster of cottages that inspired Marie Antoinette's hamlet at Versailles.
Did you know? The duc d'Aumale bought the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry in Italy in 1856, while he was living in exile in England.
How this list is ranked
Places are chosen for how they look, not for how famous they are: each one has its own description and a photograph credited to its author. The order is a single world ranking that weighs the beauty of the place in curated photography together with how widely it is documented — the number of language editions of its encyclopedia article and how often that article is read in a year. The list is rebuilt as places are added, so the order and the counts on this page are always current.
Questions people ask
- What are the most beautiful 19th-century castles in Europe?
- On our list, Lichtenstein Castle (Germany) ranks first, followed by Neuschwanstein Castle (Germany) and Miramare Castle (Italy).
- Which country has the most 19th-century castles in Europe?
- In our collection, the most come from Germany (2), France (1) and Italy (1).
- How many 19th-century castles are on this list in Europe?
- The list covers 5 19th-century castles in 4 countries. Germany has the most, with 2.