Hohenzollern Castle

Hohenzollern Castle crowns an 855-metre hill above the town of Hechingen in Baden-Württemberg, creating a silhouette visible across the Swabian Alps. The current castle is the third built on this site. The first was constructed in the early 11th century as a medieval fortress of the Counts of Zollern and was destroyed in 1423 after a siege by the Swabian League. A second, larger castle was built between 1454 and 1461 and served as a refuge during the Thirty Years' War but fell into neglect by the late 18th century. The present building was constructed between 1846 and 1867 as a family memorial commissioned by King Frederick William IV of Prussia and designed by Friedrich August Stüler in the Gothic Revival style. Unlike Neuschwanstein, which was built as a private retreat, Hohenzollern was intended as a monument to dynastic continuity. The castle is arranged in a U-shape on the hilltop with four main towers: the Emperor's Tower, Bishop's Tower, Margrave's Tower, and Michael's Tower. The interior includes a richly decorated Count's Hall, a library with a spiral staircase housed in the Watch Tower, a Protestant chapel and a Catholic chapel, and a treasury containing the Crown of Wilhelm II, personal effects of Frederick the Great including his uniform, flutes, and snuffbox, and a letter from George Washington to Baron von Steuben. The castle is privately owned by the House of Hohenzollern and is open to visitors year-round with guided tours. It receives approximately 350,000 visitors annually. The site works well as a side trip from Stuttgart, 50 kilometres to the north, or as part of an itinerary through the Swabian Alb and the Black Forest region.