CALLENBERG CASTLE – COBURG
Summer Home of the Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Callenberg Castle is now a stately and elegant 19th Century palace of the Dukes of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, turned museum. The Saxe-Coburgs are most notably the ancestral relatives of the British Royal family, following the marriage of Queen Victoria to Prince Albert in 1840, and related to the five remaining royal families in Europe. The main palace of the family was the Ehrenberg Palace in the center of Coburg, now a city administration property, with Callenberg on its wooded hilltop serving as the summer palace and still owned by the family.
A fortress keep was probably first built on the hilltop near Coburg around 1100, with the first documented record dating from 1231, when an Ulrich III, a “Knight of Callenberg” transferred ownership of the castle to the Bishops of Wurzburg. Later in its history, the castle was owned by the Earls of Henneberg. Then in 1317, the castle came under the control of the Knights of Sternberg, and its most notable owner of the late middle-age. Hans of Sternberg in 1530, as governor of Coburg was a host to Martin Luther in his stay in hiding at the larger Veste Coburg on a distant hill. Hans had recounted his own pilgrimage to Jerusalem to the Reformer and Luther in turn dedicated his translation of Psalm 117 to the knight.
The next important resident in the Renaissance period was the Duke John Casimir of Saxe-Coburg who took possession of the castle and lands in 1588. The duke built the first castle chapel to Protestant ideals and the second oldest pulpit altar in Germany. The castle and treasury of the dukes was in the hands of the Saxe-Meiningen branch of the family for 350 years, before returning to the Saxe-Coburgs in 1826. This was when the reconstruction of the upper castle commenced, completed in 1831, based the architectural plans of Carl Alexander von Heideloff, noted for his restorations of Nuremberg Castle and Lichtenstein Castle, as well as the chapel of Rheinstein Castle (see Knights Watch on the Rhine), and the Hall of Knights at the Veste Coburg.
Aside from the historic chapel, Callenberg features rooms occupied and used by the family and visited by enumerable notables of the royal family connection. Queen Victoria’s great-grand-daughter Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the mother of the current King of Sweden, Carl Gustav, got engaged in the romantic confines of the intimate castle in 1932. The walls are adorned by pictures of Prince Albert in various ages and the young Victoria, who noted in a diary entry of its location, “A little steep is the way up to Callenberg castle, but once arrived, you can enjoy a nice cup of tea in a beautiful surrounding”. Her husband Albert spent some of his youth at Callenberg with his brother who would inherit it, but was born a distance away at the Rosenau Palace, which Victoria preferred for its English landscaped garden and roses.
The terrace garden at Callenberg is more confined on the hill, but offers some of the best views of the castle from the outside, with the formal geometric layout on the former defensive courtyard now decorated with a series of bronze sculptures of tennis players, a popular sport with the family along with the other main past time of hunting. The castle is also now the location of the German Shooting Museum in the west wing of the palace, telling the history of archery and shooting sports, the largest collection of Olympic Torches in Germany and a laser shooting range.
Visiting Callenberg Castle
Open hours are Daily 11 am to 5 pm in Summer (April 1 - October 31) and Tuesday to Sunday in Winter (November 1 – March 31) Admission for adults is €5. Children €2.50. Guided tours are offered on Sundays and Holidays. To reach the castle by car, take the B4 highway to the “Co-Beiersdorf” exit. The Shooting Museum is included in the castle admission price. © Bargain Travel EuropeBest vacation deals compare prices in Bavaria at TripAdvisor
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See Also:
PRINCE JOSIAS SAXE-COBURG - WAR & STRUDEL
WARTBURG CASTLE 500th ANNIVERSARY MARTIN LUTHER
FUGGER & WELSER MUSEUM - AUGSBURG
WILHELMSBURG CASTLE - SCHMALKALDEN
