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/fuckyeahdopamine 21h ago

do you have details on how they shared it ? Like, was it a timeshare or did every brother get a wing or sthg ?

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u/minnick27 21h ago

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u/Ae3qe27u 21h ago

Thank you!! Really cool to see that

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u/fuckyeahdopamine 21h ago

Thank you very much for the explanation !

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u/kingtuolumne 20h ago

Wow I can’t believe there was such a specific answer! Cool

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u/QfromMars2 21h ago

It was different „wings“.
My Brother worked there as a Guide.

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u/Canadian-Man-infj 11h ago edited 10h ago

That's awesome! I looked it up on YouTube and found a cool "travel and tourism" type of video with the Count of Eltz giving a guided tour (of the publicly-accessible parts of the castle, not the current living quarters).

He seems like a really cool and down-to-earth guy, for being a count. He apparently has another residence where he lives full-time, but frequents the castle. Here's the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ezoCvDZDkU (14:41)

There's a TIL in there about the origins of the phrase "climb into bed," which is interesting (beds were built/set in an elevated position in rooms because of heat rising).

Other interesting facts:

  • There are about 80 rooms, 40 fireplaces, 3 kitchens
  • "The walls are up to 1.5 metres thick" (quote from the Count).
  • There are wall tapestries from the 13th century that were created by artists and feature a lot of different animals based on travellers accounts, not the artists' sight; so, many of the animals are just depictions from descriptions, making them somewhat fantastical, to varying degrees... paging filmmaker, Guillermo del Toro!
  • There's a "chopping block" in a kitchen that couldn't have fit through a door or window on the first floor, proving it to be as old as the castle.

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u/kummer5peck 21h ago

I don’t know the answer, but I have been there. I believe there are 3 separate residences within the castle. They probably divvied those up somehow.

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u/Krilox 21h ago

rofl that is a timeshare i could've joined

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u/Schootingstarr 20h ago

as someone mentioned, they split the castle into separate wings that were connected in certain parts. there is a meeting room at the top of the keep that connects to multiple wings for example