Burg Hohenzollern, Germany

The Burg Hohenzollern is a medieval castle located on the top of a hill about 50 km south of Stuttgart, Germany. The castle was built in the first half of the 11th century but it was completely destroyed in 1423. In 1454 the construction of the second and larger castle began which was during the Thirty Years War (between 1618 and 1648) rebuilt as a fortress.



During the next centuries the Burg Hohenzollern lost its strategic importance and was in the beginning of the 19th century ruined. Between 1846 and 1867 the castle was rebuilt as a memorial of the Hohenzollern family by King Friedrich Wilhelm IV in its present appearance. However, the Burg Hohenzollern did not serve as a residence of the Hohenzollern family until 1945 when it became the home of the last Prussian Crown Prince Wilhelm and later also his final resting place. The Burg Hollenzollered is widely considered an ancestral seat of the Hohenzoller family (which came to power in the Middle Ages and later ruled Prussia until the end of World War I in 1918) and is today open for the public.