Dear friends and followers,

in the last part of my series about the Drachenfels (Dragon's Rock), I want to show you some gorgeous photos of a festival of light, that takes place once a year at the neogothic castle called "Schloss Drachenburg".

Schloss Drachenburg is a private villa in palace style constructed in the late 19th century. It was completed in only two years (1882–84) on the Drachenfels hill in Königswinter, a German town on the Rhine near the city of Bonn. Baron Stephan von Sarter (1833–1902), a broker and banker, planned to live there, but never did.

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Location

In the following image you can see the Drachenburg castle to the left and Drachenfels ruin to the right to get an idea of their location on the Drachenfels mountain.

By Dmitry Tonkonog and Ksenia Fedosova - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

Festival of Light

As I mentioned before, there are special illuminations in- and outside the castle for a few weeks a year and we went there at the last day of this year's festival. After we had reached the castle, we could already spot some light installations, like the chairs and the 3D cube in the first image.

The Park

The park was also illuminated with some snowdrop lamps and some coloured lights at the trees of the historical Gründerzeit gardens.

Here is one of the two golden deers at the so called "Venus Terrace" with a historical fountain system.

The Castle

The castle was built in the style of the so-called Historicism, an architectural style of the 19th century that was oriented towards the architectural styles of past eras.

With its abundance of towers, bay windows and crenellations, the castle quotes medieval structures.

I especially liked this dragon head.

The castle was severely damaged towards the end of World War II and after temporary use it stood empty since the 1960s. There were even plans to demolish it, but this could be prevented.

From 1995 to 2010 it had been restored in accordance with its original condition and converted into a kind of Wilhelminian style museum with an emphasis on contemporary interior design.

The whole scene became more and more beautiful while the sun went down and the light installations unfolded their magic.

Main Staircase

When we entered the castle, the main staircase catched our attention.

As in the baroque era, the staircases built in the manor houses and castles of the 19th century served primarily to reinforce the dynastic prestige and personal fame of the owner, an aim manifest most clearly in the choice of paintings and murals – the whole iconographic programme. When ascending the stairs, the beholder would experience an accumulative effect.

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The Main Staircase at Schloss Drachenburg was once adorned with 24 monumental paintings, of which 13 have survived the castle‘s troubled past.

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Dining Room

The first room, we entered, was the dining room.

Hunting themes were the chief source of inspiration for the ornate decoration in the Dining Room, which is at once imposing and domestic. In five paintings, the Munich artist Ferdinand Wagner (1847-1927) illustrated the course of a hunt carried out by the Knight of Drachenfels Castle in the 14th century.

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Reception Room

In compliance with the architectural how-to manuals of the time, the Reception Room at Schloss Drachenburg was a point of entrance to the suite of assembly rooms on the representative level. As customary at the time, it was located between the Dining Room and the Salon (the Nibelung Room).

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The light installation in this room showed a fish, while the lower part of it was just a reflection on the floor. We were especially impressed by the amazing view of the sunset outside.

Nibelung Room

Next up was the Nibelung room, which had been used as some kind of gentlemen’s lounge. It was the conversation room or smoking room to which the men withdrew after dinner for political discussion or a simple chat.

The “Nibelung Room” gets its name from the subject matter of the large-scale wall paintings by Frank Kirchbach (1859-1912) depicting ten key scenes from the Song of the Nibelungs.

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Most of the stunning stained glass windows were destroyed in World War II, but faithfully reproducted.

Art Gallery

Although the name of the room may suggest the idea of an aristocratic picture gallery, the Art Gallery here was never intended to be a place for the viewing of paintings. Its distinctiveness lay more in the presentation of glass art for which the serially arranged high windows provided more than enough surface area.

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Unfortunately I wasn't able to take any photos of the glass art, because the room had been roped-off because of the light globe.

Private Apartments

The second floor of the castle containes two private apartments. Facing north was the private apartment of the castle owner.

Facing south was the guests-of-honour suite reserved for special visitors to the castle.

Here are some more impressions without further explanations.

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Tower

Finally we climbed to the tower of the castle for another stunning view over Bonn and the Rhine.

And enjoyed the illuminated castle on our way home one more time .

Thanks for watching!

I hope, that you enjoyed my little series about romantic Drachenfels. If you haven't already, you could also check out the first two parts. Here are the...

Links

• Part1 of my series about Dragon's Rock
• Part2 of my series about Dragon's Rock
• The english language homepage of the Drachenburg castle

Until next time!

@shortcut - art, photograpy & travelling