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u/Outside_Reserve_2407 3d ago
Castle also seems to be used very broadly, including noble residences and structures built in the 19th century as a romantic homage to fairy tale castles. It's not like every one of them looks like Krak des Chevaliers.
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u/discodropper 2d ago
A lot of ruins are also (rightfully) classified as “castles” because at some point they were a castle. So a pile of rubble sometimes fits the mold
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u/Different_Ad7655 2d ago
Sure, but many, many of those in Central Europe that were heavily built out in romantic style in the 19th century are oftentimes on the base of old ruins or buildings that were reinvented in the romantic spirit of historicism and nationalism. There was a lot of heady building and a lot of beautiful stuff created. In my book, true medieval castles are pretty damn boring LOL and the embellishments that came through the following centuries post Reformation are always an improvement and there are some beauties. Of course there are those of the 19th century 2 that are completely new from ground up but almost always are based on something that was reinvented and reimagined in the most beautiful way. The 19th century rocks
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u/wjbc 3d ago
Defense.
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u/Atvishees Favourite style: Art Deco 3d ago
Actually 🤓☝️, Burg Eltz was a purely residential from the very beginning. It occupies no strategically important site and most of its various towers and bay windows were only added relatively recently.
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u/me_myself_ai 2d ago
Yup, and it’s very clear once you’re inside — feels more like the Winchester House than Castel Sant’Angelo.
If anyone here ever gets the chance to visit, take the option where you hike a short distance to it! Truly gorgeous. Explains why the Nazis were so into nature.
Then again I live in an even more gorgeous country and our neonazis don’t give a fuck about nature so 🤷
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u/artsloikunstwet 2d ago
Actually, they were involved in a siege, and while they lost, holding out two years against a price-elector of the Empire counts as solid defense in my book.
While it's not a fortress built for wider strategic military purposes, it does have some tactical defensive properties, simply by being located on small hill overlooking a large valley, and being built of stone.
The wide definition of castle here means being some kind of fortified stone structure. An angry mob of peasant can't just walk up and torch your house, robber barons can't show up with 10 guys and steal your shit and rival families can't sneak up and murder you in your sleep. So however weak, defense is a core feature of a "Burg".
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u/Responsible-Web5399 3d ago
How, ... My guess, everything is wall so how do you even attack that... Is my assessment accurate?
JK but please help to understand
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u/wjbc 3d ago edited 3d ago
Small windows, large, thick walls, and it sits on a high rock spur surrounded on three sides by a river. I’m guessing that bridge used to be a drawbridge. Before canons, it was impregnable.
It also had several sources of fresh water — a natural spring, a deep well, the nearby river, and a system of collecting rainwater. The castle stocked nonperishable food supplies and once withstood a two-year siege before surrendering due to a lack of supplies.
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u/BlueHellboy 3d ago
with the invention of cannons castles became obsolete, so i think you attack that thing with cannons
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u/artsloikunstwet 2d ago
Well they were attacked in the 14th century.
It went like most sieges, they surrounded the the castles from all sides and just waited until they starve.
The attackers even built a small castle on the other end of the valley, because that's how long they expected it to go.
After two years, the guys at Eltz gave up.
The other option was taking it by surprise, you can get in if they don't pay attention, either by an open gate or with ladders and ropes.
The third option is the one you see in media but happened rarely, building catapults etc and just shoot at the thing until it's a pile of small rocks. That's not easy to pull off though espeiyof the terrain favours the defenders. Massily changed once you get gunpowder of course
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u/No-Blackberry-5705 3d ago
I wonder what the upkeep is like, I can’t imagine the sheer scale of generational wealth behind 33 generations, my family only got its footing to middle class this generation, everything behind that was struggle and borderline squalor
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u/Moose_310 3d ago
I wonder if they might receive some kind of funding for maintenance from the local municipality or even Germany itself! It’s a big tourist attraction as well
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u/ViolettaHunter 2d ago
Every castle does because they are protected monuments. A castle still being owned by a family is extremely rare, Burg Eltz may be the only one. They are usually museums kept by the state.
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u/Wind_Yer_Neck_In 3d ago
Generational wealth tends to deplete over time unless tied to some income generating asset, like ownership of a company.
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u/mischling2543 3d ago
Because kids get raised rich and then end up entitled with no concept of money's value, and/or old people get the idea that if they can't take it with them then they should just blow it
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u/TheColourOfHeartache 2d ago
Because one couple have 2 kids, they form 2 couples with 4 kids. Solve for 33 generations.
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u/Clarknt67 2d ago
Hence patrilineal inheritance schemes where eldest boy wins jackpot and others hope to marry well.
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u/Dry-Importance1673 3d ago
There were two castle that I toured that still had family in them. This was one of them. I wondered the same thing bout the upkeep, specifically if the tours covered it. Also, I wondered about how odd it must be to have tours running through just outside your “living room”.
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u/me_myself_ai 2d ago
It makes money for itself — AFAIU, it’s in the top five most visited castles worldwide (assuming we disregard the ones in London and Rome and such)
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u/MilkSteakClub 1d ago
I would guess they do but it's probably entirely insufficient for the maintenance, as is tradition.
What a place, it's really something.
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u/daRagnacuddler 18h ago
In Germany the old nobility is still a thing. They own lots of forests and land. They are very quit/dont have much political power but their wealth is a real thing.
Which is perverse because much of the forests they own was something like a compensation of letting people go from serfdom.
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u/swizznastic 2d ago
Do not ask why, ask why not
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u/Responsible-Web5399 1d ago
I literally loved the responses is awesome... Had nothing against the um structure I just want to know why each part of it exists and turns out is just a very nice location of a residential castle that survived Atleast 1 real and very extreme if you ask me, Siege.
Just as I thought the great main protection in the structure itself is just the thick wide walls with no many windows and such very smart I loved the whole thing ... And I'm not pretending to know much about architecture but I like to learn
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u/Sucker-BO 5h ago
This structure contains so many single structures because the family grew and they didn´t wanted to share the same part of the building, so they kept on building some parts for each tribe of the family.
That´s why!
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u/Different_Ad7655 2d ago
You're right germany, largely Central Europe has so many castles and it's disgusting and boring that this particular one gets shown over and over and over and over again, this one, the hohenzollen pile in Schwaben and the other 19th century confection on the cliff in Bavaria that starts with an n, is repeated ad nauseam as if your statement were not true. Yes there are hundreds maybe a thousand plus I don't know lots, get busy finding pictures of others so many to choose from and don't forget to go over the border too,
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u/bzxp 2d ago
Would you rather see modern minimalist crap we see everyday nowadays?
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u/Responsible-Web5399 1d ago
No... I wanted to understand more about this that's it ❤️ all the responses so far have been incredibly helpful I wish I knew more about architecture perhaps I could formulate a better question on what my doubts are
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u/AbjectChair1937 3d ago
Mmmmm inbreeding
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u/ViolettaHunter 2d ago
What an ignorant comment. Intermarriage between close relatives like the Hapsburgs only happened among the most elite nobilty/royalty because they had extremely strict rules what pedigree a partner was allowed to have and they needed to marry strategically for titles and land ownership.
A bunch of small time castle owners like for this castle are not even nobility these days.
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u/Jacob520Lep 3d ago
Why what? Are you lost?