Hohenzollern Castle

Timeline

1. around 1040

   First castle built

   The Counts of Zollern erect the first hilltop fortress on Mount Hohenzollern, later praised in chronicles as the crown of all castles in Swabia

2. 1061

   First mention of the Zollern family

   The Zollern family name appears for the first time in the chronicle of Bertold of Reichenau, marking the dynasty's entry into recorded history

3. 1218

   Dynastic split

   Elder son Conrad I moves to Franconia and founds the Brandenburgian-Prussian cadet line, while younger son Friedrich II keeps the Swabian county and the mountain castle

4. 1267

   Castle named Castro Zolre

   The first castle is recorded by name in historical sources as Castro Zolre, with contemporary chroniclers describing it as the crown of all castles in Swabia

5. 1423

   Destruction of the first castle

   After a year-long siege by the Swabian League of Cities, the first castle is utterly destroyed and the dynastic seat passes into ruin

6. 1454 to 1461

   Construction of the second castle

   A larger and sturdier second castle is constructed as a Catholic Hohenzollern refuge, with the Chapel of St Michael surviving to this day

7. 1634

   Capture during the Thirty Years' War

   Württemberger troops capture the castle during the Thirty Years' War, after which it passes under Habsburg control for approximately a century

8. 1744 to 1745

   French occupation

   During the War of the Austrian Succession, French troops occupy the castle in the winter of 1744 to 1745, returning it to Habsburg hands afterwards

9. 1798

   Second castle abandoned

   The last Austrian owner leaves the castle and the second structure falls into ruin, with only the Chapel of St Michael remaining usable

10. 1819

    Decision to rebuild

    Prussian Crown Prince Frederick William IV climbs Mount Hohenzollern during a journey toward Italy and vows to rebuild the ancestral seat

11. 1846 to 1867

    Construction of the third castle

    Architect Friedrich August Stüler completes the third castle in Gothic Revival style over twenty-one years, creating the dynastic monument still standing today

12. 1945

    Crown Prince Wilhelm's residence

    The deposed Crown Prince Wilhelm, son of the last German Emperor Wilhelm II, briefly resides in the castle after World War II

13. Present

    300,000 annual visitors

    The castle today welcomes more than 300,000 annual visitors and serves as a major filming location for international productions

Detailed History

Hohenzollern Castle traces back to the early 11th century when the Counts of Zollern built the first hilltop fortress over an earlier Alemannic settlement. The House of Hohenzollern first appears in chronicles in 1061, and the castle is first mentioned in 1267 as Castro Zolre, praised as the crown of all castles in Swabia. In a 1218 dynastic split, elder son Conrad I inherited Franconian lands and the burgraviate of Nuremberg, founding the line that became Prussian kings and German emperors, while younger son Friedrich II kept the Swabian county to guard the mountain seat. The first castle was destroyed in 1423 after a year-long siege by the Swabian League of Cities. A second, sturdier castle was built from 1454 to 1461 as a refuge for the Catholic Swabian Hohenzollerns; during the Thirty Years' War it was captured by Württemberger troops in 1634 and then passed under Habsburg control for roughly a century. During the War of the Austrian Succession, French troops occupied it in winter 1744 to 1745, and it began to fall into ruin after the last Austrian owner departed in 1798. By the early 19th century only the Chapel of St Michael remained usable. The current third castle owes its existence to Crown Prince Frederick William IV of Prussia, who climbed Mount Hohenzollern in 1819 during a journey toward Italy and later wrote that making Hohenzollern habitable again was one of his deepest desires. After ascending the throne, in 1846 he commissioned Friedrich August Stüler, heir of Karl Friedrich Schinkel, to design an ornate residence drawing on English Gothic Revival and Loire Valley châteaux. Engineer-officer Moritz Karl Ernst von Prittwitz designed the entryway, and after twenty-one years the third castle was completed in 1867. Although envisioned as a dynastic memorial, no Hohenzollern monarch lived there permanently and the three German Emperors never occupied it; only in 1945 did the deposed Crown Prince Wilhelm briefly reside there. Today the castle holds the imperial crown of Wilhelm II, personal effects of Frederick the Great and dynastic portraits, welcoming over 350,000 visitors annually and serving as a filming location.

Cultural Significance

Hohenzollern Castle occupies a uniquely symbolic place in German history as the ancestral seat of the dynasty that ruled Brandenburg-Prussia and the German Empire from 1871 to 1918. Where the first and second castles had been functional medieval strongholds, the third castle built from 1846 to 1867 was conceived as a Romantic dynastic monument embodying Frederick William IV's nostalgic vision of medieval kingship. Together with Ludwig II's Neuschwanstein and the Stolzenfels rebuild, Hohenzollern is one of the three great Neo-Gothic castle projects of 19th-century Germany and a pinnacle of German Romantic architecture. Its collections include the imperial crown of Wilhelm II, personal effects of Frederick the Great, and a letter from US President George Washington thanking Baron von Steuben for service in the American Revolutionary War, offering rare artefacts of Prussian and transatlantic political history. The chapel crypt within St Michael's Bastion holds the remains of the last Crown Prince Wilhelm (1882-1951), Louis Ferdinand of Prussia (1907-1994) and other key figures, so the castle still functions as an active Hohenzollern mausoleum alongside its public museum role. In contemporary German culture it ranks alongside Neuschwanstein as the country's most beloved castle silhouette and frequently tops national polls of the most beautiful castles.

Architectural Details

The third castle of 1846 to 1867 was designed by Friedrich August Stüler, a student of Karl Friedrich Schinkel, combining English Gothic Revival with Loire Valley silhouettes. The design exploits the isolated 855-metre summit, arraying the central keep with conical spires, flanking towers and a geometric curtain wall along natural rock undulations. The entryway was entrusted to engineer-officer Moritz Karl Ernst von Prittwitz, Prussia's leading fortifications expert, whose approach road and gates exemplify 19th-century Romantic military architecture. Exterior walls use local sandstone in dressed masonry, with characteristic Neo-Gothic pointed arches, rose windows and clusters of pinnacles. Three principal halls — the Count's Hall, the King's Hall and the Empress's Hall — narrate chapters of the Hohenzollern lineage, Prussian royal house and German imperial family through sculpture, painting and ceiling decoration. The sculptural programme was led by sculptor Gustav Willgohs, with statues of historical rulers lining the curtain wall as a three-dimensional dynastic genealogy. The Chapel of St Michael, the only structure surviving from the 1454-1461 second castle, is a small late-Gothic stone chapel that still functions as the family burial vault.