Lichtenstein Castle
Schloss Lichtenstein
Interesting facts
- The name Lichtenstein means roughly "shining stone", a fitting label for a pale castle perched on a bare limestone crag.
- The first castle on the rock went up around 1100 and was destroyed twice, in 1311 and again between 1377 and 1381.
- The knightly family of Lichtenstein died out in 1687, when its last known member fell fighting the Ottoman Turks.
- In 1802 the future King Frederick I of Württemberg had what remained of the old castle partly cleared to make way for a forester's and hunting lodge.
- Although Carl Alexander Heideloff drew up the design, the building work on site was supervised by Johann Georg Rupp.
- A wealthy German-born businessman spent twelve years, from 1986 to 1998, building a replica of Lichtenstein at Hout Bay near Cape Town.
- A small castle on the island of Rügen, in Lietzow on the Baltic coast, copies much of Lichtenstein's design.
- In 1891 a vineyard house shaped like a miniature castle in the style of Lichtenstein was built at Osthofen near Worms.
- The castle was damaged during the Second World War, and its walls, second floor, upper floor and roof were restored in stages between 1980 and 2002.
Why it is worth it
Lichtenstein Castle stands on a narrow spur of rock high above the Echaz valley at the northern edge of the Swabian Jura, a slender Gothic Revival castle that looks as if it has grown out of the cliff. It is a 19th-century dream of the Middle Ages, and a book made it happen. In 1826 Wilhelm Hauff published Lichtenstein, a historical novel in the manner of Walter Scott in which the castle plays a central role; Count Wilhelm of Urach, a cousin of the King of Württemberg with a passion for medieval art and history, was so taken with it that in 1837 he bought the site, then occupied by a hunting lodge.
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.
Inside, the castle was decorated by the Nuremberg painter Georg Eberlein and furnished with Count Wilhelm's collection of medieval art and arms. Among its treasures are a Death of the Virgin by Michael Wolgemut and altar wings by the anonymous painter known as the Master of Lichtenstein. The castle is still owned by the Dukes of Urach and has been carefully restored in stages since the 1980s.
The best views are from the bailey across to the tower, and from the cliff edge out over the valley. Lichtenstein inspired imitations as far away as Indiana and Cape Town, proof of how completely it captured the romantic idea of a knight's castle.
Getting there
The castle is above the village of Honau in the Reutlingen district, about 7 km from Pfullingen and a short drive from Reutlingen. Stuttgart Airport (STR) is about 32 km away.
Plan your visit
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Nearby places
- Hohenzollern Castle 23.4 km · castle
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From the encyclopaedia
Lichtenstein Castle is a privately owned Gothic Revival castle located in the Swabian Jura of southern Germany. It was designed by Carl Alexander Heideloff and its name means "shining stone" or "bright stone". The castle overlooks the Echaz valley near Honau, Reutlingen, in the state of Baden-Württemberg. The modern castle was inspired by Wilhelm Hauff's 1826 novel Lichtenstein and was built in 1840–1842. The ruins of an older medieval castle are a few hundred meters away.
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