SCHLOSS ZWINGENBERG

Evening Star, Issue 18834, 8 January 1925, Page 6

SCHLOSS ZWINGENBERG

A JEWEL OF MELTEALAL ARCHITECTURE. Tlif' Listle of Zwingenhcrg is built on a steep ruck on the right bank of the River Rhine, and overlooking a small village nestling at its feet. The castle, once the residence of the local lord of the district and now the property of the former Grand Duke of Baden, is one of the best preserved in Germany, and a perfect jewel of medieval architecture. Erected un_ a naturally strong and commanding eminence. describes a writer in the ‘ Christian Science Monitor,’ the castle must in olden times have secured to its owner the complete command of the river. Like most old German castles, Zwingenberg consists of an outer and an inner caswe, the inner portion of which would have remained an impregnable stronghold even had the outlying parts been taken. The inner fortress is approached by .a flight of stops hewn in the rock, and flanked by a huge ivy-mantled wall. . The principal entrance leads into an open hall, the north and cast waHs of which are cut in the solid rock, while the other two are constructed of huge square-cut stones. The hall opens into a six-cornered courtyard, surrounded bv the high walls of the castle and overshadowed by the “ keep,” a square, solid tower, tho most_ characteristic feature of the whole building, and the strongest part of the fortification. Tho only entrance to the keep is on tho second floor. In former times admittance to this part could only he gained by means of a ladder, but to-day it can easily bo entered from tho attic of the adjacent building. On tho top floor of tho keep was tho guardroom, the walls of which aro pierced by seven loopholes which provide fight and' air, and at tho same time enabled a watch to bo kept on all the roads of the neighborhood, as well as on tho river. The castle proper, which has been adapted to the needs of the present owner, is entered by a small doorway opening on to a winding staircase, which lends from the bottom to the top floor. The basement contains tho kitchen, a storeroom (tho former dungeon), and tho new chapel. Tho kitchen probably was formerly the hall of tho castle. On the first floor is tho ancient chapel dating from 1424. It is a narrow, dark vaulted room, tho ceilings and walls of which are covered with quaint primitive frescoes representing saints with their symbols. The colors are well preserved, but tho gold has oxidised and turned an ugly dark green, which rather detracts from the impression as a whole. A door on the opposite side leads to the apartments of the present owner, a beautiful library in eighteenth-century stylo brought hero after tho revolution from the residential castle at Karlsruhe and the rooms of the Queen of Sweden, the Grand Duke’s sister. On the second floor is the largo dining hall, and a wainscoted room full of old family portraits, and the other apartments of the grand ducal family. From the wainscoted room one enjoys an enchanting view over the ivy-clad walls, bastions, and battlements of the castle far up the lovely valley of the Xackar, with its wooded slopes and quaint old villages, its narrow strips of fields, its grazing herds, and the winding silver band of the swift-flowing river. The landscape can have changed very little since the time when the castle was built.