Week 49: Burg Pyrmont

Burg Pyrmont

We are back into the full-tilt mode of castle visiting. This week's coverage is of Burg Pyrmont (sorry, no English link). This castle was a little bit of an adventure, as there was no materials available in English. We had our choice of German, Dutch and French. We chose German, and did our best to pick our way through the tour material. Luckily, our German has improved enough to grasp the basic information on the rooms from the handout.

View from the Top of the Tower

Burg Pyrmont is located nearby Burg Eltz. In fact, from the tower at Pyrmont, we were able to see the crane at Burg Eltz and just make out the castle. Unfortunately, I did not get a picture, so you will have to trust me on this. One thing that was particularly interesting about this castle was that you could rent out a room or a portion of the castle as a holiday apartment or for a wedding. And, frankly, the rates for the rooms weren't too bad: about 80 Euros for two people for one night, including breakfast. We've paid more where we were not, in any way, staying in a castle. 

Looking Down the Tower's Staircase

This type of repurposing is very common in Europe, where they have lots of old buildings that they don't want to tear down, but can't really preserve as just tourist attractions. We saw a lot of this in Denmark, in particular, where it seemed that every old building that was not being used for its original purpose was turned into art studio. It is quite an interesting approach, as the architectural elements that have developed in a specific area are maintained, but the buildings stay useful and add to the environment. It is an interesting approach and is reminiscent of how some of the downtown industrial buildings in Providence, RI were reused.

Breakfast Room

It looks like a really nice place to stay. We were able to walk around a bit in the building and found the breakfast room, which was really nice, as you can above. I bet the food is pretty great as well...