Lindenplatz @museum.de

Unfortunately, climbing the steps is not very pleasant. That’s because this is an equestrian staircase, so it was originally meant to be used by horses. To the left of the stairs, you pass an old bulwark, where there were bronze cannon in the 16th century. Check your screen to see what they looked like.

Count Bernhard the Third had at least 30 of these cannon cast in Frankfurt and positioned them around the castle. Some also stood in the local square known as Grüner Platz, where you can enjoy a cup of coffee or tea in the sun these days.

Four of these artillery pieces have even survived. You’ll have a chance to see them on Kanonenplatz – the aptly named Cannon Square –if you take a guided tour of the castle.

By the early 16th century, advances in weapons technology meant it was necessary to extend the existing defences while also creating space for the new, larger artillery pieces. That wasn’t at all easy, up here on the basalt cone. Soil had to be added over a large area and surrounded with massive walls.

The former bulwark here at Lindenplatz hasn‘t played a part in the castle’s defence for more than three centuries. In 1686, Count Heinrich Trajektin laid out a pleasure garden with an ornamental fountain for his wife here. The towering lime trees may well date back to that period. They shelter a memorial to the war dead erected in 1923. It was built in Düsseldorf from a design by government architect Ernst Stahl.