My Favorite Castle Ruins in Germanymonkeysandmountains.com /f avorite-castle-ruins- in-germany

I have explored quite a few castle ruins in Germany. While I always enjoy visiting them, I recently visited some castleruins that took my breath away.

The Baden-Baden Castle Ruins quickly became my favorite castles ruins in Germany.

This is a bold statement considering there are ~25,000 castles/castle ruins in Germany. After looking at the photos youwill see why:

Baden-Baden is a spa town

The entrance to Al tes Sch los s (Old Cas tle ) in Baden Baden.

Baden-Baden is a spa townlocated in the northern BlackForest Bill Clinton once famouslyquoted “Baden-Baden is so nicethat you have to name it twice.”

Officially the castle is known asHohenbaden Castle, but locallyas Altes Schloss, meaning OldCastle, a well deserved nameconsidering the castle was builtin 1102. The castle sits high ona hill which ambitious visitors canreach through a forested hikingpath. Less energetic visitors viacar, similar to HohenzollernCastle. Once visitors havepassed the entrance way, this iswhat awaits them (above photo).

The Baden-Baden CastleRuins are by far thelargest castle ruins I’veever been to!

They’re much larger than thecastle ruins in Stuttgart or othercastle ruins that I have comeacross while hiking. Normally Ican explore castle ruins in about10 minutes.

It took us over 30 minutesto fully explore thesecastle ruins complete withsecret dungeons!

I was seriously jealous of thepeople having breakfast (shownin above photo) on the castleruins makeshift terrace. There is

In ter io r o f the cas tle ru ins in Baden-Baden.

ruins makeshift terrace. There isalso a

The cas tle ru ins in Baden Baden are the la rges t cas tle ru ins I’ve exp lored in Germ any.

restaurant in the castle ruins, but the view from where they were sitting is outstanding! Needless to say I already hinted,perhaps not so subtly, to J.P. (my German fiance) how grateful I would be if he could make this happen someday.

Not only is the Baden-

The larges t wind harp in Europe is a ls o found a t th is cas tle ru in in Baden-Baden.

Not only is the Baden-Baden Castle Ruin thelargest castle ruin I haveever been too, but it alsohouses Europe’s largestwind harp!

The harp has 120 strings andmeasures almost 4 meters! There was a gentle breeze theday we went and a soft calmingsound could be heard from thewind harp.

The views from this castle ruins are impressive overlooking both the Black Forest and the Rhine Valley. The views aremaximized by the walkway at the top of the castle ruins. I can see why the Margraves of Baden (a title given to thecounts of Baden) choose to live here from the 11th to the 15th century.

The

The cas tle ru ins have bu i l t in m odern l igh ten ing pro tection.

The

outstanding views afforded by the castle ruins do have a downside though. The risk of being struck by lightening! It’s areal concern as many castles in Germany have been badly damaged by lightening at some point. I.e. HeidelbergCastle. Fortunately the Altes Schloss has modern built in lightening protection in which if it gets struck, the current runsdown these wires and into the ground. (I’m sure it’s a bit more complicated than that, but that’s the gist of it).

View of the cas tle ru ins and the B lack Fores t.

As ifthat

wasn’t enough, guess what the cost is to enter the Baden-Baden Castle Ruins?……FREE! Unbelievable!

For more information see the City of Baden-Baden Tourist information

Baden-Baden

About Laurel

Laurel Robbins is a free-spirited adventurer, award-winning travel blogger at Monkeys and MountainsAdventure Travel Blog. Many hats, one travel obsessed Canadian in Germany.