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/forsti5000 21h ago

English doesn't differentiate between Burgen and Schlösser so tze number is inflated

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u/Square-Singer 21h ago

And even Schlösser are hardly a solid definition. I took the bus that went past Schloss Essling for years before someone mentioned to me that that decrepid old house is a Schloss. I would have never guessed.

Btw, English does have terms that differentiate: Fortress = Burg, palace = Schloss. But castle means both.

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u/Foxtrot-13 19h ago

English very much has terms to differentiate these, it is just Americans don't use them.

Castle is a catch all term for a fortified building containing a keep or keep like structure and at least one defensive wall, that was the seat of both military and civil power in the middle ages.

A fort is a fortified building that was only the centre of military power and is normally used from the Elizabethan age onwards.

Fortified manor houses are buildings that are secure but don't have the thick walls or curtain wall of a true castle.

A manor, stately home or palace is just a very big house.

One of the issues is that Victorians (especially in Scotland) liked to put a turret or crenellations on their houses and call them a castle to make it sound fancier than it was.

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u/Loinnird 20h ago

Well, no. Castles are fortified. Palaces are not.

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u/fartingbeagle 20h ago

It's also complicated that in my experience, castles are usually damp, draughty and cold to live in. As soon as the Thirty Years War ended, and there was less need for a fortification and when any family got some money; the first thing they'd do is build a nice new palace with all modern conveniences, usually using the bricks of the old castle.

Since the palace was often literally built of the old castle, it often kept the name.

Just my theory.

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u/Cocosito 5h ago

Why were fortifications no longer needed?

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u/zatalak 20h ago

There's a solid definition:

A 'Schloss' is a building or compound that members of the nobility had built for their usage. That's it.

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u/HardWirez 20h ago

That's not very solid. By your definition, if some noble put up a shed to store his collection of bicycles, it would be called a schloss.

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u/Square-Singer 18h ago

No, a Schloss is what you use to lock up the bicycles.

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u/itishowitisanditbad 18h ago

Another castle for the list!

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u/[deleted] 20h ago

[deleted]

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u/Exotic_Cranberry8175 19h ago

As a German: No, we most definitely would not call it a Schloss. Schloss entails some kind of (former) glamour or pomp or at least something more spacious so that the noble family and their servants could live in it.

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u/nalaloveslumpy 19h ago

What if they sleep on the bicycle?

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u/thedirtyknapkin 20h ago

well that's basically a "manor" in English and is very much not considered a "castle". to call those castles in English just sounds like bad translations work.

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u/zatalak 19h ago

Yeah, ah castle would be more like a 'Burg'.

Chateau could be better fitting for Schloss.

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u/Ok-Dragonknight-5788 18h ago

Actually, alot of thouse manors would have been considered castles by the English back in the day to.

Most people don't realize how low the floor is for what counts as a castle. It's more a result of survivorship bias thar when we think about castles we think about the upper 25-10%

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u/Marauder777 20h ago

There's a Reddit definition: A 'Schloss' is what I unfurl from my pantaloons when thy fair maiden bares her ankles.

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u/Dipsey_Jipsey 20h ago

so tze number is inflated

That typo is making me read this like Simpsons character, and I'm German hahaha

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u/forsti5000 16h ago

Ve hey ways to make yo talk ;p

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u/RelativeEconomics114 19h ago

And they include ruins and fortresses.

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u/NewCandy8877 21h ago

Probably includes rathause too

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u/Lycrist_Kat 20h ago

English doesn't have Umlaute so how are they supposed to differentiate?

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u/equili92 19h ago

Isn't burg and schloss like fortress and castle