Kaiserburg, Nuremberg

Busy day today, a lot of sites to see. We're really rushing through this trip, because I said, we don't know if we're ever coming back. If I had my way, we'd go a lot slower, and see a lot more. Having said that, on to stop one.

We walked from the apartment passed the Maxtor and into the old city. We wandered around for a while, visited a church with a stark interior (Nuremberg was very Lutheran, back in those days), saw some statues, passed the Judengasse. One of my goals, find the remnants of the old Jewish ghettos/ neighborhoods in the various towns and cities we visit.

Our first stop was the Kaiserburg, the Imperial Castle of Nuremberg. It has a long and storied history, dating back to around the year 1000. As with many of these immense structures, it was added to, expanded, and changed over time. It was almost completely destroyed in World War II, and took over thirty years to be restored to what it is now. Like the Hohenfestung in Salzburg, this place is enormous.

The Kaiserburg is important in German history as it was one of the many complexes used by the King of the Germans/ Holy Roman Emperor, and which in fact, hosted every one of them up through the Thirty Years War. The KoG/ HRE had no permanent abode, but rather traveled among various fortifications in the very spread out realm.

The Kaiserburg, however, was on that every single one had to come to. After being crowned, it was traditional, not sure if it was statutory, that the HRE meet with the Diet in Nuremburg. There are many stories about the long processions of various Emperors coming through the gates, up the Königsstraße, and into the fortress. They even have a shadow play of this in one of the museum rooms of the castle.

So we're going to an amazing historical complex. We bought the expensive ticket, no cheaping out here, which included the Sinwell Tower and the Tiefer Brunnen. The tower, with it's rickety wooden steps winding around provides an amazing view of the city. The Tiefer Brunnen-- the deeper well, has existed from the foundation of the structure, the only interior source of water for the complex.

There's a lot more I can talk about, but it's all out there on the internet. I will say, besides the tower and the well, the places I was most interested in seeing were the Palas, which was the official residence of the Emperor when he was there, and the Kaiserkapelle, the Imperial Chapel. The chapel was designed with multiple levels, and a hole in the ceiling, providing separate levels for worship, the emperor up above, everyone below, reflecting the medieval hierarchy.

So a few posts with pictures. I could go on about these guys, Frederick Barbarossa, the various Henrys, Ottos, etc, but I'll leave that for another time.

We toured the museum, chapel, and as I said, the tower and well. Lots of pictures. Lots of armor, weaponry, and interesting things. Even just walking around the grounds without paying to go in is worth the walk up the hill, though I highly recommend visiting the inside.

In this post, I'll be sharing the shots of the backside and one of the courtyards of the Kaiserburg, because that's the way we entered, a model of most of the complex, the outside of Tiefer Brunnen, and the candles they send down the wall, to show how deep it is.Meer informatie