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Schloss Review

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Schloss

Fodor's Review:

What's most striking is the architectural variety of this great complex. The oldest parts still standing date from the 15th century, though most of the castle was built in the Renaissance and baroque styles of the 16th and 17th centuries, when the castle was the seat of the Palatinate electors. There's even an "English wing," built in 1612 by the elector Friedrich V for his teenage Scottish bride, Elizabeth Stuart; its plain, square-window facade is positively foreign compared to the more opulent styles of the castle. (The enamored Friedrich also had a charming garden laid out for his young bride; its imposing arched entryway, the Elisabethentor, was put up overnight as a surprise for her 19th birthday.) The architectural highlight remains the Renaissance courtyard -- harmonious, graceful, and ornate.

The castle includes the Deutsches Apotheken-Museum (German Apothecary Museum. 06221/25880. Daily 10-5:30). This museum, on the lower floor of the Ottheinrichsbau (Otto Heinrich Building), is filled with ancient carboys and other flagons and receptacles (each with a carefully painted enamel label), beautifully made scales, little drawers, shelves, a marvelous reconstruction of an 18th-century apothecary shop, dried beetles and toads, and a mummy with a full head of hair.

Even if you have to wait, you should make a point of seeing the Grosses Fass (Great Cask), an enormous wine barrel in the cellar, made from 130 oak trees and capable of holding 58,500 gallons. It was used to hold wines paid as taxes by wine growers in the Palatinate.

The castle may be reached by taking the Königstuhl Bergbahn. Generations of earlier visitors hiked up to it on the Burgweg, a winding road. Of course, it's easier to walk down. In summer there are fireworks displays from the castle terrace (on the first Saturday in June and September and the second Saturday in July). In July and August the castle hosts an open-air theater festival. Performances of The Student Prince often figure prominently.

  • Cost: Courtyard, Great Cask, and Apotheken-Museum EUR 2.50; tours of interior an additional EUR 3.50
  • Open: Mar.-Nov., daily 9:30-6; Dec.-Feb., daily 10-5; tours in English daily, when demand is sufficient

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