SCHLOSS LUDWIGSECK
Country House Castle Bed & Breakfast in Germany
The
Knüll Hills of central Hesse Germany have long been a popular
vacation area for local Germans. Swimming clubs and small holiday hotels
and bed & breakfasts dot the small roads through the thick forests
known as the Riedeselschen Wäld. This land in the middle-ages was
the land of the knights of Holzeim who in 1419 built a small castle for
defense of their hunting lands. One of the last castles built in the
medieval era, Schloss Ludwigseck (Ludwigs Corner) lost its defensive
purpose and became a favorite hunting lodge of the Baron of Eisenbach
and located near the tourist route known as the Fairy Tale Road (see Brothers
Grimm Trail).
For
centuries a private family home, today the Schloss Ludwigseck has been
opened as a hotel with
lodging
in a bed & breakfast style, operated
by the hereditary family owners Thilo and Tanja von Gilsa. The experience
of staying in Schloss Ludwigseck is very much like being a guest in a
baronial family manor of old days. Intentionally kept private and quiet,
the castle doesn’t even have a sign on the road and is easily missed
among the thick green trees. So if you plan to stay, get very clear directions
when making a reservation. When you arrive, you’ll likely be greeted
by the family Dachshund who will do his best to act the guard dog, barking
with all his might, but mostly wanting to roll over and have his belly
rubbed. The country manor
is a working farm and the sheep will come to nudge with a black faced
nose.
You’ll
find no towers or moats at Ludwigseck. The fortified gate wall is the
only defensive
artifact, but inside, you’ll
find a truly rustic baronial manor ambience, hallways with deer antlers
and bright windows on wood floors which still creak occasionally with
historic unreconstructed charm. The manor house is decorated by Frau
von Gilsa, an interior decorator by profession, in a French style and
filled with family heirloom art including a portrait of the Landgrave
of Hesse, cousin of England’s King George III who sent Hessen
conscripted soldiers to fight in the American Revolution, many of whom
came from this region.
Lodgings
The lodgings at Schloss Ludwigseck are two upstairs guest apartment
bedrooms,
which can accommodate singles or doubles, or serve as an apartment for
a family or group, including use of small guest kitchen. Guests can choose
whether they would like Frau Gilsa to prepare meals from local freshly
hunted game (some of which you may have hunted yourself - see below)
or go off fending to the restaurants of the historic nearby beautiful
towns of Homberg/Efze
(see Homberg
Efze Krone and Revolution) or Rotenburg an der Fulda.
Relax in the large salon in front of the fireplace or head out to local
concerts
or events.
A look at the top
floor great
hall will take you back to the days when the local baron meted out
justice from the seat of his country house.
Hunting Baronial Style
Keeping
with its history as a nobility hunting lodge, Schloss Ludwigseck is
still very much connected
to hunting
in the true baronial style. If
you have an objection to the killing of woodland animals for an evening
meal, Schloss Ludwigseck is probably not the place for you. But if a
hunting holiday in the woodlands of Germany holds attraction, you
needn’t
pack a gun in your luggage. In the past several years the forest has
been over-populated with deer and hunting is encouraged around the area.
Thilo von Gilsa and his “flusher” will provide you with guns
and ammo and take you out to the hide in the family owned game reserve
where you can bag your own dinner from local venison or pheasant. If
fishing is more your woodland roughing it style, you can get a day license
and fish the forest lake or stream.
The Schloss Ludwigseck is a
member of Culture-Castles, a group of historic family castle homes
in the Netherlands
and Germany which have opened
lodgings to the public. The association started with 14 stately historic
homes and continues to add more (see Soldier
King’s Kavalierhauser
Brandenberg). © Bargain
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See Also:
SCHLOSS
SOMMERSDORF - STAY ON ROMANTIC ROAD
GERMANY'S
CASTLE ROAD
DARMSTADT FRANKENSTEIN CASTLE RUINS
AUSTRIA’S
IMPERIAL HUNTING STORE - JOH SPRINGER
