r/interestingasfuck • u/The_Love-Tap • 22h ago

Germany has more castles than the United States has McDonald’s. This is the Eltz castle, located in Wiershem. It has been owned and occupied by the same family for 33 generations over 800 years

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u/Salmonman4 21h ago edited 21h ago

I heard that the Holy Roman Empire had an unofficial rule that there should be a castle at least within a day's horse-ride (or was it just foot-travel) everywhere in the land .

EDIT: grammar

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u/Jorgilu 21h ago

It was also due to the fact that the emperor had no real power to stop pretty much any schmuck from building a castle in "his" lands.

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u/irspangler 20h ago

Generally speaking, Europe has (at least) a town/village in every direction within a day's horse-ride. There are very few large, open land areas in Europe barring impassable terrain like mountain ranges - and even then, they're loaded with little mountain villages.

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u/Salmonman4 19h ago

Villages, yes. They grow pretty much naturally.

Castles on the other hand require deliberate investment of resources and special skilled artisans to build

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u/orangeyougladiator 20h ago

Don’t really matter here since the Roman’s never conquered Germany

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u/almodsz 17h ago edited 17h ago

He was talking about the Holy Roman Empire and not the Roman Empire.

Also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation or the First Reich.

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u/Salmonman4 20h ago

Neither was HRE an Empire, nor particularly Holy