Burg Nurnberg

I love the very old and very historical and during my travels in southern Germany I was very fortunate to be in an area that is rich in history. The region of Bavaria I visited is a gold mine of burgs (castles), cathedrals, basillicas, schloss (grand estates) and traditions. After driving 612 kilometres the first stop of the journey was Nurnberg. Since there is so much about this beautiful city to tell you about I'm going to start with "Burg Nurnberg".

Nurnberg castle is one of the most important castles in the history of the German empire. It attained its massive size in three stages of construction between the 11th and the 15th centuries. Combined with the city defenses, this is a site that justifies a lengthy tour.

For its earliest 500 years this castle was the residence of all Germany's kings and emperors, and hosted virtually all important leaders and royalty of the time. While German emperors never had an actual capitol or home base as such, Nurnberg came as close to this distinction as possible. It is one of the very few castles to have had the official privilage of housing the imperial regalia and bear the symbol of the empire on its walls.

The castle's extensive and significant history is far too involved for me to even touch on here (I had to buy an english guide book to get me through it all!) so I'll just leave you with a few photos to give you a sense of what I saw.