Nuremberg Castle Audio Guide

Nuremberg Castle: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Nuremberg Castle

   Welcome to Nuremberg Castle, which sits on a rocky sandstone ridge at the edge of the old town in Nuremberg, Germany. It is known in German as the Kaiserburg, the Imperial Castle. What you see is not a single fortress but a group of medieval fortified buildings. Together with the city walls, they are counted among the most formidable medieval fortifications in Europe. In the Middle Ages, German kings did not have a capital. They traveled from castle to castle, and the ones who were crowned by the Pope became known as Holy Roman Emperors. Nuremberg's castle became one of the great stopping places on that endless journey. Court assemblies and Imperial Diets were held here, and the castle was one of the most important fortified imperial palaces of the old Holy Roman Empire. Over the next few stops we will follow the castle through its life as an imperial residence, a city-owned stronghold, a romantic symbol, and a ruin rebuilt after the Second World War. Look up at the rock as you listen. Everything we talk about grew from that outcrop.

2. 02

   A Home for Emperors

   Nuremberg first appears in a document in 1050, and it is described there as royal property. From that point the place became a favorite of the Salian and Hohenstaufen kings and emperors. Between 1050 and 1571, every Holy Roman Emperor is said to have stayed here at one time or another. The castle and town were a regular stop on the rulers' journeys through the realm. The city's role was written into law in 1356. In that year Emperor Charles the Fourth issued the Golden Bull, which provided that every newly elected ruler must hold his first Imperial Diet in Nuremberg. Not long afterward, the city also became the guardian of the imperial regalia, the ceremonial symbols of rule. They were kept safely in Nuremberg from the early 1420s. Trust in the city shows up in smaller moments too. In 1485 Emperor Frederick the Third handed the treasure of the House of Habsburg to the citizens of Nuremberg. It was packed in several chests sealed with a signet, and it was kept in the lower chapel. When an emperor entrusts his family's wealth to a city, you can tell how secure he thought it was.

3. 03

   Three Castles in One

   The first thing to understand is that the castle is not one building. It is a sequence. In front of it stand the late medieval town buildings. Next comes the Burgrave's Castle, which is only partly preserved. Then you pass through the Freiung, an area that was originally ecclesiastical. From there you reach the outer castle and, finally, the main Imperial Castle complex. The Burgrave's Castle once belonged to the Hohenzollern burgraves of Nuremberg, and it stood to the east. It was destroyed in 1420 and sold to the imperial city in 1427. As the owner of the whole hilltop, Nuremberg built further structures, including the imperial stables. In the sixteenth century it also tied the castle into the modernized city fortifications, with their bastions. The Imperial Chapel is considered the most important building on the castle rock from an architectural point of view. The Kemenate, a building that originally had residential and work rooms heated by fireplaces or later stoves, now houses a display by the Germanisches Nationalmuseum. It uses archaeological finds, ornamental architectural elements, models and reconstruction sketches to explain the site's changing roles. The old imperial stables have a surprising modern use as Nuremberg's youth hostel.

4. 04

   Legends, Romance and Ruin

   Let us begin with a legend. A story from the fourteenth century tells of a marauding knight named Eppelein von Gailingen. Facing execution, he is said to have escaped by leaping his horse across the moat of the Imperial Castle. It is a tale, not a documented event, but it shows how deeply the castle sat in local imagination. After the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved in 1806, French troops occupied Nuremberg and, under the Treaty of the Confederation of the Rhine, handed it over to Bavaria. Interest in the castle revived as medieval architecture became fashionable. In 1833 King Ludwig the First ordered Carl Alexander Heideloff to carry out restoration work, but the king disliked the neo-Gothic style and stopped it. In 1866, after Bavaria's defeat in war, King Ludwig the Second had to grant King Wilhelm the First of Prussia a share in the use of the castle. Emperor Wilhelm the Second later stayed here several times and styled himself Burgrave of Nuremberg while he did. Then came the twentieth century. In 1934 and 1935 the nineteenth-century historicist redecoration was removed under Rudolf Esterer. On 2 January 1945 a devastating bombing raid destroyed up to 70 to 80 percent of the castle. Reconstruction, which included the Luginsland tower that had been completely destroyed, was completed by 1981. The rebuilt castle you see today is largely a postwar achievement.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   Today the castle is owned by the state of Bavaria and run by the Bavarian Administration of State-Owned Palaces, Gardens and Lakes. It remains one of the main attractions of Nuremberg. Its permanent exhibition, titled Emperor, Empire, City, was redesigned in 2013 to explain how the castle worked and what the Holy Roman Empire and late medieval Nuremberg were like. As you look around, try reading the walls as layers. Some stonework speaks of medieval emperors, some of the city's own fortifications, and some of the long rebuilding after 1945. Each one answers a different question about who held this rock and why it mattered. If you have time, let your eyes travel back over the old town from a viewpoint on the ridge. Ask yourself why rulers without a capital kept returning to this exact spot. The answer is part geography, part politics, and it is waiting in the stones around you.