After World War 2 history, I was ready for some palaces, which always cheer me up- I just imagine myself as a Princess living in them... haha! So Joseph and I headed first to the Zitadelle, which is one of the best preserved Renaissance Fortresses in Europe.
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| The Zitadelle: it has a moat to this day. Love it-there were even swans swimming in it. |
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| The Julius tower, which we unfortunately couldn't go into because of the ice. But the tower held most of the war reparations that were paid to France after World War 1: 120 million marks worth of gold, to be specific, |
The Zitadelle was pretty cool and has had lots of uses besides just castle, at one time it was the home of the elementary school for the local town, how awesome is that?! Not that I don't dearly love my alma matter (Troutdale Tigers!) all I'm saying is that going to elementary school in a real life castle is pretty freaking cool.
It also had lots of statues and even a statue graveyard:
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But most of the stuff was outside so we hurried right on thru the Zitadelle and moved onto Charlottenburg, which was more of an indoor experience (thankfully).
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Oh hello Charolettenburg, I want to live in you. |
This palace was the idea of Sophie Charolette, the wife of Fredrich the 3rd. It must be super nice to just say "I want a palace" and have it built. Sigh. Anyway, this one was amazing (as usual).
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| Just a charming, low-key hall for entertaining family and friends. No big. |
The palace is also famous for it's gardens. Supposedly when Sophie Charlotte was having it built she modeled the palace and the gardens after Versailles (just like Zwinger Palace!) and the gardens were designed by a gardener recommended to Sophie Charlotte by Marie Antoinette. Apparently building giant beautiful palaces was all the rage among the aristocracy. :)
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| the gardens (which I am sure are gorgeous in the summer) |
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