We got off the train at Braubach and walked through town then up a zigzag path (it started to rain) to Marksburg Castle where we joined a tour in English. You can only visit the castle as part of a guided group. Our group was small, about 15, and the route quite adventurous. The oldest parts of the castle are about 900 years old.
We started though the original gateway along rock cut path, looked at guns and the view. The gardens, in particular the medicinal plants, and into the castle. We saw the living areas, kitchen, chimney, stables and forge. We walked through low doors and narrow passages. Often with uneven steps. The tour was very good and we enjoyed seeing and walking through the low doors, narrow passages and steep stairwells. Some of the stairs where built inside the walls and would have been dark and dangerous without electric lights.
It was built mostly as a defensive castle, but there are some grand accommodation areas. Some of the rooms seemed to have been carved out of the rock. And the slug to show there is wildlife…. It was about 12cm long ! One does not think of gardens when visiting a German castle on a hill, but there was an interesting medicinal garden as well as odd wild plants.
The last pictures was taken in the town of Braubach. We thought the black (wood) and white houses are fake, paint jobs for the tourist, until we got close and saw they were the real thing
- The good and the Bad of Marksburg Castle
- Compact
- Adventurous walk
- Only with a guide, included in price
- Good informative guides
- A great German Castle to visit with a lot of history
- Still in use, not a ruin
We would definitely recommend a visit.