ROYAL CASTLES OF EUROPE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3030, 10 April 1912, Page 88

ROYAL CASTLES OF EUROPE.

(Cofv RIGHT.) In the early days of kingship it was customary for a monarch's chief residence and seat of government to combine pomp and splendour with defensive strength, and in many cases the latter qualification was indeed the moat important. The necessity for such strongholds has passed a.way with the stormy days of warring dynasties, and, even in the event o f a conflict, the frowning walls of once impregnable fortresses would not be able to withstand the shocks of modern artillery, But many of the Royal castles of Europe still remain as memorials of the warlike days of their building and the stirring scenes which have been enacted within their walls, and in many instances to witness peaceful scenes of princely magnificence in place of the more martial pomp of centuries gone bv. ENGLAND'S ROYAL CASTLES. Earliest in point of age a-nrong our English Royal castles is, of course, the Tower of London, which was a Royal residence in the days of the Norman Kings, and to a certa'n extent was so used by the Angevins, although it soon began to be used as a prison rather than a rpalace, when the requirement's 'of a more luxurious Court called for less austere surroundings. For centuries, however, the famous keep which William Rufus built (tiaditionallv on the site of a Roman fortress), and which is known to-day as the White Tower, was the occasional lodging-place of English Sovereigns, and until modern times it continued to be used for the King to lodge in the Tower for a night prior to his coronation. Now, however, the Tower has tor so long been given over almost entirely to other uses that our main Royal ia=tle has been lor eenturias the Castle of Windsor. The fortified residence of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, afterwards Richard 111, known in old maps and plans of London as " Baynard's Castle," has now long been demolished. Prior to tho reign ot Edward 111, Winchester Castle was the seat of the English Kings, where, in the Great Hall, may still be seen upon the wall the identical Round Table with tho names of King Arthur's knights emblazoned thereon, around which King Richard C'ceur de Lion assembled his comrades on the eve of his departure for the Holy Land. Edward the Third, always a firm supporter of chivalric traditions, and loving his birthplace, Windsor, with a strong affection, conceived the idea of rebuilding tho castle on its ancient site, and there founding his Order of Saint George and the Garter. WINDSOR'S STATELY PILE. The famous Round Tower of Windsor stands upon the table-mound which marked the spot where King Arthur anciently held Ids Court, and there has also been a castle on this site since the days of W lliam the Conqueror. Saint George's Chapel was also begun bv Edward 111 as a chapel for the Gaiter Knights, and completed by Henry VIII. It is a wonderfully rich example of perpendicular adornment, and contains the magnificently-adorned stalls of the Knights of the Garter, with their coats of arms and banners above them. The bell in the Round Tower, which weighs 17cwl, was brought here from Sebastopol. The State apartments are notable for the splendid pictures Which they contain, in especial Saint George's Hall, where are portraits of the Kings of England since James the First, and the Old Ball Room, or Van Dyck Room, so called from bring exclusively devoted to portraits by that master. The park is a beautiful wooded expanse of rolling country, and is stocked with several fine herds of fallow deer. Windsor is a favourite residence of King George V, who prefers it greatly to Buckingham Palace, ai'd in the shooting season finds congenial occupation in the park coverts. ROYAL CASTLES OF FRANCE. Many of the ancient Royal castles of France* are doubly interesting through their connection with the PJantagenet Ki.r.gs and with the English wars in France; and amongst these may be instanced the castle of Angers, whose gi<K>my frowning and massive towers, almost as solid as the rock upon which they stand, seem to embody the very spirit of the days when the boy Prince Arthur was done to death within its walls. Another famous Royal castle of France is that of Ples&is-les-Tours, which playgoers will remember as the scene of Louis Xl'a death, as enacted with gruesome vividness bv the lrvings. father and son, while readers of Sir Walter Scott will recall to mind Quentin Durwaid's exploits there as a soldier of the Scottish Archers Guard. A good many of the "chateaux" of France are perhaps not exactly castles in the English sense of the word, which with us aignifies something resembling a fortress more strictly than does iUs French equivalent. Nevertheless, a good many of the French castles are tolerably strong places, akhough not so stubborn and uncompromising as our own baronial holds. The Royal chateau of Fontainebleau is one of many rural hunting lodges built by Francis I, and added to from time to time by succeeding monarch*. It is in the familiar "pepper-pot" towered and manygabltd style of the French chateaux, and alands in the heart of a magnificent forest where the Kings of old France were wont to take plea&ure in the chase. " The Louvre, as it stands to-day, is strictly-speaking, not a chateau, but a palace, built during the Medicis regime in the Baroque style, but it occupies the site of an old moated and fortified palace of the early French Kings. The palaces of Versailles and Saint Cloud have also little of the castle element about them, and the majority of the genuine fortified chateaux were destroyed during the Revolution. THE GERMAN SCHLOSS. Germany is the country of castles par *).\cellenoe, and many of the seats of the

lesser Royalties now embodied in the German Empire are picturesquely situated, and of the highest interest from the historic and archaeological standpoints. Amongst these Schloss Schwerin, the palace of the Grand Dukes of Mecklen-burg-Schwerin, is a notable example of pomp and splendour, although no doubt from the antiquarian's point of view the old buiiding which was destroyed during the eighteenth century was greatly to be preferred. The huge "new Schloss seems, in truth, to be a little bit of a white elephant to its princely owners. Part of it is not yet completed, although, several generations of Grand Dukes have put touches to it, and despite the fact that it undeniably shows taste in its inen and design, one cannot but notice the comparative bareness and emptiness of the stately interior. THE PALACES OF POTSDAM. The Berlin palaces, which are vaguely described under the general title of "Potsdam," comprise several distinct buildings of varying age and interest. In addition to the "modern palace, where are the Royal aoartments, there are at Potsdam the Stadt Schloss, which is the oldest of the existing buildings, the palace known as " Sans-Souci," where Frederick the Great longed to spend in ease and rest the close of his strenuous life, and the Schloss now known as the Schloss Friedrichs Kron, since it was there that Frederick the Noble breathed his last. More interesting, however, than any of these magnificent buildings is the comparatively small and austere castle called Schloss Rbeinsberg, far away from the gaieties and amusement? of modern Berlin. Here, in this rough mediaeval stronghold, Frederick the Great passed the studious and solitary years of his lonely youth. The room which he used us a study is still shown, and, as a practically-minded visitor somewhat pathetically observes, " his chair stands at the point where three draughts from doors and windows converge." OTHER PALACES. The palace of the Escurial at Madrid, bare, barrack-like structure though it appears from the outside, is a palace pure and simple, and the finest example of a Spanish castle is probably that- of Toledo, which occupies a commanding position overlooking the wonderiul old mediaeval city. Scandinavia boasts but few castles, with the exception of the remains of the famed Danish fortress at Elsinore, which is immortalised in "Hamlet." The Rosenborg and Fredericksburg, both situated at Christiania, are picturesque gabled buildings of no very gveat pretensions to splendour. THE CASTLE OF A MAD KING. There remains to be described one of the most curious of the Royal residences of Europe, and one to which attaches a strange mournful interest —namely, the eccentric building known as the Schwanenschloss, erected by the mad King Ludwig of Bavaria, when* his insanity was beginning to reach a pronounced stage. The unhappy King believed himself to be Lohengrin, the Knight of the Swan, and in accca-danoe with this idea he had the swan motif introduced freely into the. decorations of the palace, which was carried out in .a gorgeous and fantastic fashion. Inside the castle he even had a lake constructed, and upon it would float about for hours in a boat made to resemble a swan. The King's apartments were as sumptuous as a bit of the Ara Dian Nights come to reality; but the mark of a disordered mind is on the whole building, which is on that account a far more depressing place than the most darksome and gloomy stronghold of the Middle Ages. The spirit of the ancient builders of castles, and of the age in which they wrought, is well mirrored forth in the grim, dour, forbidding, yet withal stately, monuments which remain as landmarks of the passing centuries and memorials of a resounding and adventurous past.