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Since the times of the Middle Ages the valley of the Middle Rhine (between Mainz/Bingen and Coblenz/Bonn) had preserved its character as a classic 'castle-landscape'. At the beginning of the nineteenh century it has been (re)discovered as 'picturesque' and 'medieval' by the English and German romanticism, whose ideas also influenced on the reconstruction or alteration of numerous castles, most of them fallen in ruin or largely destroyed. Stolzenfels has been erected from 1836 to 1842/45 on the ruins of the thirteenth century castle and made a residence for Frederic William IV. of Prussia (1795-1861), executing a project inspired by the architect and painter Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781-1841). It seems the typical expression of complex ideas combining cult of ruins and castles, rediscovery of the Middel Ages (Gothic revival), patriotic pride and historicism with a predilection for neo-Gothic architecture (castle style). Together with Rheinstein, Reichenstein and Sooneck (between Bingen and Bacharach) it forms the most remarkable example for the Prussian romanticism of castles ("PreuĂische Burgenromantik"). Nowadays it serves as a museum. The Marksburg over Braubach (a few kilometres south-east of Stolzenfels presents the result of a more scientific approach to a conserving restoration of castles. In 1900 Prussia conveyed it to the Association for the preservation of German castles ("Deutscher Burgenverein" 1899, since 1953 "Deutsche Burgenvereinigung") and from that time it has been accurately reconstructed following the project initiated by Bodo Ebhardt (1865-1945). Nowadays the castle is a museum, housing also the offices of the "Deutsche Burgenvereinigung", which recently opened up an Institute of European castles ("Europäisches Burgeninstitut"). |