Landgraves' Castle: watches over Marburg by Trekki
Apart from the houses, the main attraction of Marburg is the castle, Landgrafenschloss, on top of the castle mountain. It is sitting almost 300 m above the city and is already visible from far away when approaching Marburg from the south. The castle might date back as a fortress as far as 11th or early 12th century, but this has not yet been fully proven. However, excavations are still ongoing, so maybe some work will be published in the near future. It was first mentioned in 1138 and became home to Hesse Landgraves, of which Heinrich II started to expand the small fortress and built the castle in 1290. The castle houses the University Museum for Cultural History in Willhelmsbau, the eastern building. Some other parts can be visited as well. In total, the castle did undergo five construction phases, so that by now it has several buildings with different architectural styles of Romanesque, Baroque and Rennaisance, but they look quite harmonious alltogether. The buildings are all grouped around a horseshoe shaped little courtyard, and this is where the entrance to the museum can be found.
Access to the castle:
To visit the castle, I highly recommend to walk uphill, because only then you will come across several ?hidden? half timbered houses. It is ?only? 139 steps, if you walk the official way (see previous tip). Another pathwalkway leads uphill from the north, along several student fraternity houses. There is also a little road leading uphill, Gisonenweg, and you can park your car on one of the several parking lots near the castle?s garden. It will be difficult to find a parking lot in summer though. And finally there is bus no 16 going up to the castle from Wilhelmsplatz (at Alte Universität, Old University).
A cute sweet detail, which I recently read about: obviously a large family of common pipistrelle (what a funny name) has chosen the castle?s vaulted cellar as their winter home, which makes it one of the ten most important German places for these tiny bats. This qualifies the castle as being bat-friendly. I would not be surprised if Marburg?s officials would mount a plaque at the castle with explanation and reference to this. These tiny bats are under natural conservation.
I wrote this tip in September 2006, but have exchanged photos and revamped the text (April 2009).