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

Post image
47.9k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

1.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

34

u/Syluxs_OW 21h ago

In Germany, people sometimes give away their castles for free. The reason is that they are protected heritage sites (Denkmalschutz), so you are not allowed to tear them down and use the land for something else. You are also not allowed to change or modernize anything without special permission and you are required by law to keep them intact which costs a fortune.

2

u/Best-Structure-8513 12h ago

If they let people put in modern internal conveniences like plumbing and heating more of the castles would probably be preserved.

0

u/CuriousButNotJewish 19h ago

Which is so stupid. A law made for the tourism industry at the detriment of house owners.