Ortenburg Castle
We visited the Ortenburg Castle with a friend of ours who lives nearby in a lovely farmhouse not far from the Castle. She is also a beekeeper. While the two women were chatting, I took a walk. At the entrance to the Castle, I found a tree trunk. The sign said the trunk was twenty-million old and turned into stone. The trunk was dug up before it could turn into coal but not before it turned to stone.
According to Wikipedia: “Coal is formed when dead plant matter decays into peat and is converted into coal by the heat and pressure of deep burial over millions of years.”
I don’t know how they came up with twenty-million years. But it reminded me of a tree trunk, only about three or four years old close my apartment in the Ringallee that had a sign by it:
“How does a pretty forest look like? Many people think that lying around old wood looks like chaos and needs to be cleaned up. But making order is wrong here. About a third of all living plants, animals, and fungi need dead wood to live on. Dead wood is very important for life diversity in our forests.”
“From around 1120 to 1805 the castle was the residence of the Counts of Ortenburg, who were directly under the Empire. In its present form, it reflects the state of construction from the years 1562 to 1575. With the exception of a few outbuildings, the castle has been completely preserved to this day.”
“The first hilltop castle on a hill above the Wolfach valley from 1120 was built by Count Rapoto I von Ortenburg.”
“The castle was destroyed during a feud with the Counts of Bogen and the Dukes of Austria in 1192. The castle was then rebuilt.”
“Since May 1, 2013, the castle has been owned by ‘Schloss Ortenburg a real estate company’, which in turn is owned by the investor Fritz Hofbauer from Abu Dhabi. In November 2018, the market town of Ortenburg decided to purchase the castle. As of January 1, 2019, the facility is owned by the municipality, which aims to extensively renovate it. Since then, large parts of the castle have been accessible as a museum and restaurant. The former castle garden serves as a wildlife park, and knights’ tournaments and concerts are held on the former tournament grounds next to the castle.”
When I came back home, I looked on Google, “How many castles does Germany have?” The answer came back immediately “20,000.”
I can spend the rest of my life looking for photogenic castles.
