German Castles

The Castles of the Rhine . Famous for their fairytale-like structure and composure; German castles are charming, romantic depictions of what are surely some of the most remarkably picturesque manmade castle fortresses ever built anywhere across the world.

Neuschwanstein Castle , Germany

 

Admired for centuries by breathless viewers, it is rumored that Walt Disney's dreamy theme park in Orlando , Florida , purposely designed its Cinderella's Castle closely after the German Neuschwanstein. Gently gracing the snow-kissed mountaintops along the river Rhine, many of Germany 's beautiful castles can be spotted from virtually anywhere surrounding the river path. The German castles that so aptly decorate the Rhine river valley were built in close quarters on a 35-mile stretch—a stunningly adorned proximity which gives Germany the most castle-populated river valley in all of the world.

 

German castles were historically used as military fortresses and centers of commerce and communication, ever since the Roman times. The Emperors of imperial Germany befitted greatly from the flow of merchants' goods along the Rhine, primarily from Italy . Those who owned the castles on the Rhine were in a great position of power—for they were the only ones who could promote healthy trade between the regions, and had the authority to determine traveling tolls and trading taxes on those who passed their properties.

 

Representative of centuries of commerce, wealth, and trade, the grandeur of the German castles along the Rhine remind us of our history and the wonderment of medieval-dating European castle culture.

 

Heidelberg Castle, Germany