Wartburg Castle - Eisenach - TravBuddy

To me, student discounts at this place are A-MA-ZING (just make sure you've got your card). Okay, just so you know, if you want to go to this place, you have to drive up a mountain, then park, then walk up more of the mountain...it's not for the faint hearted, but let me tell you, if my mom can do it, so can you! (98 year olds in walkers on the other hand need not apply). You can stay at the hotel attached to the castle and they drive you up to the top though...so that's always and option. Anyway, I was really impressed and excited about this place. It's a really cool castle, built with a fantastic view on the top of a mountain. Luther stayed here and wrote numerous theological tracts during his stay, you can even visit his study room. The castle is also very well preserved, and has medieval and renaissance aspects to it. They have a preserved interior medieval staircase...which is virtually unheard of and they have most of the original chambers still intact and following their medieval model. The *only* downside to this place is that a lot of it is reconstructed. Usually this bothers me, but in the case of this castle, it really didn't...and the only explanation I have for that is, that they weren't pretending it was original. For instance, the room of St. Elizabeth has an AMAZING mosaic depicting her life story, that was made in the 1990s. The rooms throughout the castle have frescoes on the wall done in the late 1800s...but again, they were well done and depicted the history of the castle and kept the rooms to their purpose, and thus were still quite impressive. Perhaps most exciting for me was the hall of minstrels, where it has been recorded, some of the greatest German medieval writers and poets performed before Ludwig and his successors.

Overlooking the town of Eisenach in Thuringia, Germany and the green hills of the Thuringian Forest, the Wartburg Castle can be seen from far.
The castle was founded in 1067 by the landgraf Ludwig der Springer and is the only German castle that was chosen to be a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
It was the home of Saint Elisabeth of Hungary and gave shelter to Martin Luther after his excommunication by Pope Leo X and his refusal to recant at the Diet of Worms. During this time Luther translated the Bible in German vernacular, making it more accesible to the ordinary people. His work had a tremendous influence on the Reformation and the German culture.

The castle has a very special magic ... it's like you enter another world and history still seems to be very much alive in the thick stone walls.

In summer there are many tourists but the tours are well organized and available in English.
In December there is every weekend before Christmas a mediaeval Christmas market and if you ever have the chance ... don't miss out on this!!

The prices are very moderate compared to similar sights in France or England.

A trip worth is also the town of Eisenach which is amongst others the birth place of the world famous musician Johann Sebastian Bach.