Wittgenstein Castle

Schloss Wittgenstein stands on a 470-metre hill between the rivers Lahn and Laasphebach above the town of Bad Laasphe in North Rhine-Westphalia. The site first housed a castle mentioned in 1187 as ‘Widenkindigstein’, built perhaps in the mid-12th century by a member of the Reichenbach-Ziegenhain counts. Graf Werner I. later used it to establish his own lordship and in 1190 agreed a contract with Archbishop Konrad I. of Mainz that never took full effect. After the castle passed to the Sayn-Wittgenstein family in 1359, it served for centuries as the centre of the county of Wittgenstein. The present three-wing complex stretches about 125 metres and mixes Renaissance and Baroque styles built in stages. The north wing dates from the late 16th century and incorporates remains of a square tower from the original 12th-century castle. The east wing’s four-storey pavilion was added in 1783, while the 1736 stables and later farm buildings complete the group. Beneath the inner courtyard a raw rock called the Widukind-Felsen rises into a glass passage around the rose garden, and the former princely archive once held centuries of documents. Inside, many rooms have become classrooms for the private grammar school and boarding house founded in 1954. The 1325 chapel of St Katharina was once the court church and later opened to the public, its 1859 organ removed in 1956. The castle’s irregular wings enclose quiet courtyards and long corridors, while outside the hilltop position offers wide views over the surrounding valleys.