Germany - Thuringia
Wartburg
A Karen Brown Recommendation
Eisenach, Thuringia, 99817, Germany |
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Wartburg is one of Europe’s finest Romanesque castles, perched atop a wooded hill southwest of town. After driving through Eisenach, you will see a “Wartburg” sign indicating a narrow road to the right that weaves up through a thick forest to the parking lot, from which it is a ten-minute walk up the hill to the castle. Note: If you have reservations to spend the night at the Hotel auf der Wartburg (see Hotel Descriptions section), you can bypass the barrier at the parking lot, drive up the pedestrian walkway to the hotel, leave your luggage, and then park your car at the hotel parking area. To visit the castle, buy your entrance ticket, cross the moat, go under the portcullis, and into the courtyard to stand in line to purchase a second ticket for the guided tour of the castle (buy a guidebook in English to help you understand this German-only tour). It was Wartburg that inspired Ludwig II to build his fanciful Bavarian castles and Richard Wagner to write his opera Tannhäuser. The restored castle is largely Romanesque but furnishings, artwork, and tapestries are original pieces from the medieval to the baroque eras of this castle. One of the most interesting rooms in the castle is the Elisabeth Gallery where six large frescoed murals depict the tale of Elisabeth, a Hungarian princess who came to live at the castle in 1211. She died at the tender age of 24, but became a legend due to her work with the peasants—nursing those who were ill and helping the destitute. Princess Elisabeth’s good deeds are even more remarkable, considering that most of the nobility during this era considered the peasants a lowly class, not worthy of attention. Another room in the castle, the Elisabeth Room, has a gorgeous mosaic, consisting of more than a million pieces of glass, mother-of-pearl, and gold leaf, which also tells the story of this compassionate princess who was adored by her people.After leaving the tour, return to the courtyard and take a few minutes to visit the few simple rooms where Martin Luther hid after being excommunicated in 1521. The walls are decorated with Lucas Cranach’s portraits of Luther and his wife. Luther spent his time here translating the New Testament into German—it was Luther’s preaching and writing in German that established German as an important language. (8:30 am–4:30 pm, April to October; 9 am–3:30 pm, November to March.)
Located along this Karen Brown Itinerary:
Exploring Eastern Germany
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