More pictures, a little history

I decided to do a little research on the castle, and thanks to several websites plus Wikipedia I have some information to pass on to you. It turns out that the Romans back in 40AD first built a fort in this area. You would be surprised at all of the Roman ruins that are throughout Germany, but unfortunately we were unable to see them mainly due to a lack of time. The Romans held onto this area until around 260AD when it was conquered by German tribes.
Several monasteries were built starting in 863 through 1142. In 1155 the castle and the surrounding area were taken over by the house of Hohenstaufen. From 1195 - 1850 it was passed down various ways, some even by marriage. The French destroyed almost all of it in 1693 during a war since they were trying to "inherit" it through a sister-in-law.
1810 brought along Count Charles Graimberg who started preservation of the palace ruins, and it has continued on. World War 1 brought some destruction to the outer areas, but it was saved from bombing during World War II due to not being either industrial or a transportation hub.
So, that's a little bit of history, but I'm sure you could find out a lot more through the Internet. What was so amazing for us is that on the walk down you would see all of these different plaques with some of these dates. Kind of hard to believe that it is that old!!! It's like hubby said we have things 200+ years old so when we see something that old we are amazed!!!
Here are more pictures

Outside views of the countryside

Reconstruction always in progress!

I hope that you enjoyed these pictures of this very large castle. There are many castles throughout Europe, some even still intact and very grand, but I guess it is just the history, the what once was, that has brought people from all over the world to visit it.