Marksburg Castle

In the afternoon on November 23, we visited Marksburg Castle in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.  It's above the town of Braubach, and not far from the city of Koblenz, which is where our ship docked.  This castle is notable for having never been destroyed or fallen into disrepair, although it has been restored over the years.

Here it is as we cruised past it on our way to Koblenz.  We hopped on buses there after lunch, and drove a little ways back up the Rhine to see this castle on the eastern bank of the river.

The first gate on the way in:

We have passed through several gates and now are walking up a roughly cobbled ramp that horses used to walk up, pulling carts and carriages too I think, into a small courtyard:

I can't really narrate all the photos as the group was huge, the castle is confusing, and we were constantly going in and out of the castle on a convoluted route so as to not get in the way of other tour groups.  I think the layout was intentionally confusing anyway, as defence against any enemies who penetrated the perimeter.  The architecture is very mixed as well, from additions and changes over the centuries.

This is looking east-ish, further up into the valley that we drove up to approach the castle:

This is a toilet structure off the banquet hall:

Beer or wine cellar:

Kitchen:

I think this was the prince's, or the lady of the castle's bedchamber:

The banquet hall, with the door to the toilet at the left:

The next 3 photos are the ceiling of a chapel.  It's not very big, and was stuffed with the tour group, so I only got pictures of the ceiling, although the room itself was not very ornate.  I think they said that these paintings were added during restoration; they were typical of what might have been there but are not original.

One room had a museum of armour the warriors and knights wore through the ages, these are some of the later, more advanced suits:

Another look at the kitchen room with its long table as we moved along the tour, I ducked my head in as we passed by for a better photo while a different tour group was in it:

This is the blacksmith shop:

This is that ramp that we came up once we were inside the final gate, the ones the horses with their humans used to climb up:

Views down (north-ish) and up (south-ish) the Rhine from the castle: