17.08.12 Leaving the Alps, Fortress of Forchtenstein

17. This morning, while still groggy and eating breakfast, I asked Hans-Jörg what the plan is today, and his answer (in awesome accent): “We are going to the Fortress of Forchtenstein”. I could hear the mental metal riff going off in Sean’s head next to me. On our ride out, the bus broke down briefly, and I am disappointed we weren’t broken down longer. Kathy was outside saying something about going exploring up to the ruins outside of the town we were at, and I wish we could have gone. I prefer the ruins where I can image how things were, to the well-kept but refurbished, and now fake and touristy castles and palaces still in existence. The ruins are the past still stubbornly existing, whereas the palaces of Vienna have been re-appropriated and their history is thus lost.

Regardless, the bus was fixed and we drove on to Forchtenstein. Yet another Esterházy bastion, given to them in 1619 by Ferdinand II. The Esterházy’s then immediately had to update the defenses to withstand artillery. Older castles had straight walls and small, slotted windows, versus reinforced castles had slanted walls and larger, square windows to hold cannon. The Mallersdorfs were the initial family to hold the castle, but they died out  in 1447. 

Inside one can find a dried crocodile hanging from the ceiling, as during the Renaissance it was fashionable to keep a ‘curiosity cabinet.’ That crocodile is 306 years old, older than America.

Around 1670 Ferdinand II turned the castle into a palace, but I wish they had kept the moat full of water.  The palace now functions as an amazing museum, full of weaponry and even fantasy weapon schematics. Paul I, a prominent Esterházy, claimed his lineage stemmed all the way back to Dracula, and so this place is home to one of the largest portraits of Dracula in existence {SHOW PICTURE}.