Inner Courtyard @museum.de

The castle courtyard with its galleries, gables, balconies, its corkscrew towers with spiral staircases and its bell tower is a jewel of Renaissance architecture. It’s regarded as one of southern Germany’s most beautiful courtyards.

Especially striking are the three sandstone galleries, one above the other, at the end of the east wing. The Latin inscription on a band beneath the cornice commemorates the man who built it, Philipp Ernst, Count of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. Here’s a translation:

"Philipp Ernst, Count of Hohenlohe, Lord of Langenburg, Baron of Lisfeld and Cranichfeld, military commander of the United Netherlands, carried out this entire flawless undertaking over a period of six years, begun in 1610 and completed in 1616."

That was when the courtyard took on its current form. The galleries, the corkscrew towers with their spiral staircases, and the volute gables date from the beginning of the 17th century. The arcades on the south side are from an earlier period.

Parts of the courtyard, especially on the eastern façade, were destroyed by the devastating castle fire in 1963. We were able to restore the majority – and preserve the unique character of this place.

The bells up in the bell tower ring every quarter of an hour. But if you look at the corbels, you can tell that the tower wasn’t originally meant to feature a clock. There used to be a walkway, which provided an excellent view. Hence the tower’s nickname: "Lug ins Land" – look out over the land. But when the castle was remodelled in the Baroque style, an extra floor was added to the east wing. That restricted the view from the bell tower, and, above all, limited its usefulness as a defensive structure. At that point, the walkway was no longer required.

High up on the roof of the tower, a lion wearing a crown holds a weather vane. It displays the year 1616, the year in which the courtyard was completed. The letters P E H L stand for Philipp Ernst Hohenlohe-Langenburg, the count who commissioned the building work.

Feel free to look around – take in the grandeur – and then come along to the next stop on our tour of the courtyard.