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Even Napoleon I was afraid of the white woman.
A ghastly howling ghost, wrapped in a nun's veil, that haunted the rooms.
After a sleepless night at Bayreuth Castle in 1812, the emperor left the next morning in a hurry and, according to eyewitnesses, kept shouting: “Ce maudit château!” This cursed castle, the haunted figure had appeared to him too.
Such horror stories were popular folklore during his lifetime.
A ghost had to be found for every castle, for every castle.
Most of the medieval walls in Europe, and there are over 40,000 of them, are the result of imaginative reconstructions in the 19th century before they were opened to the public.
They relied on clichéd, romanticized ideas of damsels, minstrels, sieges, machicolations - and a ghost as an inventory.
In any case, the white woman became so popular that in the 19th century she haunted hundreds of castles and palaces at midnight at the same time, not only in this country, but also in the Baltic States, Scotland and France.
The photographer shows castles all over Europe
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Because the second life of the castles depended mainly on the public taste of the new interpreters of the Middle Ages.
Of course, none of this had much to do with historical reality.
The British art historian John Ruskin even criticized such restorations as "the most complete destruction a building can suffer".
The French architectural photographer Frédéric Chaubin also hates the confectioner style.
He says: “What corresponds best to popular clichés is often the least authentic building.
Insensitive renovations and fantasies inspired by romanticism produce an external uniformity that corresponded to the expectations of a castle as if cast from a single mold.
That could go so far that the building was completely restored to a state that never existed - or a new copy was created. "
England: Stokesay Castle, built in the late 13th century, is one of the best-preserved fortified mansions in the country
Source: Frédéric Chaubin, “Stone Age”, Taschen
Instead, Chaubin looks for those originals, that is, the monuments of power that have been authentically reconstructed and faithfully restored as far as possible.
For five years he traveled from castle to castle, from castle to castle, across Europe.
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In his great new photo book “Stone Age” he shows a good 200 exterior views of palaces and fortresses from 21 countries, which actually seem as if time has passed without a trace and they are still holed up in their original state.
Chaubin calls them the medieval "roots of brutalism", composed of massive sandstone blocks, often enthroned on mountain heights or protected by thick walls.
The castle offered its residents protection from danger
Such as the Castle of Sedan, Europe's largest fortress in the Ardennes, or the Castel del Monte in Apulia, Italy.
With keep, battlements, trenches.
Or the fortress town of Aigues-Mortes in the Camargue.
Sober, dismissive, powerful, strictly functional.
Chaubin shows what such castle complexes, spared from romanticization and alienation, originally were.
France: Cattle festival in front of the fortress town of Aigues-Mortes in the Camargue
Source: Frédéric Chaubin, “Stone Age”, Taschen
He says, “Above all a fortified residence.
In times of turmoil, this building is intended to protect its residents from the dangers of the world.
It protects them from outside attacks and demonstrates the lord's local ownership.
The surrounding area was administered from a castle and pacified through the function of the lord of the castle as a judge.
Your defense system is the entrenchment. "
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That doesn't sound romantic, of course, and you won't find any buildings in the neo-Gothic style in the volume.
That is why Germany’s most famous Neuschwanstein Castle, which was only built in 1869 for the Bavarian King Ludwig II and is considered the ideal of a medieval knight’s castle, cannot be found either.
Spain: Coca Castle in the center of the country is built of bricks and has a moat
Source: Frédéric Chaubin, “Stone Age”, Taschen
Instead Eltz Castle in the Eifel, one of the most photographed German castles.
It should look familiar to older semesters, as it once graced the 500 DM note.
Eltz Castle stands on a 70 meter high cliff high above the Elzbachtal near Koblenz.
It is completely preserved, also because the hilltop castle was never conquered.
Since it was built in the 12th century - in the 33rd generation - it has been owned by the same family, the von Eltz family, who have maintained and restored the ensemble of buildings with a lot of love and money over the centuries.
Germany: Eltz Castle in the Eifel has been family-owned for 33 generations
Source: Frédéric Chaubin, “Stone Age”, Taschen
The castle can usually be visited in the summer months.
Of course, there is also a ghost: the ghost lady is called Agnes von Eltz, fatally struck 500 years ago by the arrow of a marriage candidate who was spurned by her and pierced her armor.
Since then she is said to have haunted the armory.
Castles and fortresses in Medieval Europe by Frédéric Chaubin: “Stone Age”, taschen.com publisher, 416 pages, 200 illustrations, 50 euros
These German ruins are worth the trip
Germany's landscapes are full of ruins.
Many of them are worth a visit.
WELT gives seven tips for short trips to beautiful and bizarre fragments in north, south, east and west.
Source: WORLD