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Imagine waking up here, gazing out of the
window from one of your many towers and surveying
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the surrounding forest
in the morning sunshine.
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Life in a fairytale castle surely
that's everyone's dream?!
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But is it really as good as it sounds?
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Today I'm at Burg Eltz castle
to find out what it s REALLY like!
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This castle has been inhabited
by the same family for over 800 years.
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So they seem like the best people to ask.
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The Eltz family have managed to keep the castle
in their hands over the last 8 centuries
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through careful diplomacy and smart marriages.
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The castle even used to be featured
on the 500 Deutsche Mark bill.
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And the castle has become a particulary famous
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Instagram hotspot in recent years as well.
With over 100K posts, Instagram has helped
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the castle reach younger
and more international tourists.
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It's a 15 minute walk through the forest
to get to the castle.
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Hidden away in this wooded valley,
it's several miles away from the closest town.
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You would definitely have
your own peace and quiet here.
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I mean, wow! Come on! That really
does look like something out of a fairytale, right?
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Burg Eltz was designed more
for looks than defense –
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it's more of a grand home than a
medieval fortress.
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It's a really nice walk here
through the woods.
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But it might be a little bit inconvenient
living in a castle that was tucked away
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in the middle of nowhere.
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I mean, what if you wanted to order
takeout in the middle of the night?
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Although I guess if you lived in a castle
you would probably have a private chef.
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We'll find out if that's really true later on.
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I've finally made it – what an entrance!
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Well, at first glance it certainly seems
quite impressive, doesn't it?
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Burg Eltz was built in the prime of medieval
castle construction between the 11th and 13th century.
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Deliberated near the Moselle River, historically
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one of the most important
trade routes in Germany.
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Nowadays, whilst its obviously beautiful, I
think living here could come with its challenges!
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The seclusion that protected it in the past
might make modern life here more remote than
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most of us are used to. And these stone walls
must be expensive to heat in the winter!
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Okay, now I want to see if other
people could imagine living here and
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what it would be like.
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Really nice, I would say,
to be in the middle of
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the forest somewhere like this, this huge...
would be really nice to live in this kind of place.
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During the day – yes. At night...
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At night I cannot imagine
how it would be like.
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It would be awesome – with these
really beautiful views around the area
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it could be really, really beautiful.
Having to clean it would be quite difficult.
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But I guess if I have the money to live in
a castle, I could have the money
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to have some people to help us.
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What do you think what would it be like to
actually live here? Would you want to?
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Oh, yeah, 100 percent.
There would be no doubt. I
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I wouldn't like the tourists though. Sorry.
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It's quite a medieval castle. It would probably
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be quite difficult to heat, especially with
the upcoming oil crisis.
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Na, I'd be all right with that. I like the
cold. So a couple of extra layers of clothing
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would be grand, maybe, you know, an
old sheepskin or something like that.
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Time to see what it looks like on the inside.
I want to find out what life here would have
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been like during medieval times, but also
what it's like to live here today.
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So of course, we don't have any access into
the private quarters of the family that lives
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here right now. But the man who resides over
the whole castle or the Lord of the manor,
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I guess you could call him, has agreed to
give me a private tour of the rest of the castle.
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Count Jakob von and zu Eltz took over the
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castle ownership from his father in 2018.
He has another home in the area, but regularly
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spends time here at Burg Eltz
where he grew up.
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When was the last time you actually spent
the night here? Is that something that you do often?
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Yeah. Yeah, I do it quite regularly.
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So the last time I spent the night here
was about a week ago.
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And is it something that you consider a luxury
being inside this castle? I know a lot of
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people would wonder what it's like for you.
- It's certainly special. I wouldn't
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necessarily call it luxury. We do have all
the modern amenities, but it's still a castle.
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And castles were never really luxurious. They
were purpose built. So it's not as luxurious
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as maybe some would hope,
but it does certainly feel special.
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This castle certainly has a certain atmosphere,
of course. Is that something that you still experience?
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Especially once people
have left in the evenings
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and it gets quiet and you're in nature it
has a very, very special atmosphere.
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And there's also a kind of a sense
of belonging here.
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For some reasons
I just feel totally at home.
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Well, perhaps you can show me
around more of your home?
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I would absolutely love to.
- Thank you.
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So one of my favorite features
in this room is this alcove.
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You had a problem because
this is one of the lower floors and you wanted
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to do many things here. Amongst them also
pray and read mass. But there was a law back
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then which stated that you weren't allowed
to place yourself above God, and that also
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meant you weren't allowed to live above a
house of God. So the only way to do that was
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to build an alcove which had its own roof,
and above the roof was only the sky.
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And so you could still use the floor above whilst
being able to read mass here. And so you actually
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kept the law in letter,
if not necessarily in spirit.
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So the bed is actually a lot larger than it
looks. It's about 1,80 meters wide and
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2,10 meters long. And the reason for that is
because the whole family would sleep in there.
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So it would be both the parents
as well as the children.
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Wow.
- Well, it was in order to preserve the heat.
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That's why you have the curtains. And that's
also why it's built up. Because you wanted
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to catch the rising heat. That's why back
then, people usually climbed into bed.
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And today we usually fall into bed.
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The theme painted across
the the bedroom walls
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is a playful one – it's full of phallic
and fertility symbols.
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So this is what you could imagine a living
room of a wealthy family in medieval ages
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to have looked like. One of the most visually
attractive things are the two tapestries that
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are hanging here. Tapestries evolved in the
14th century or even earlier. Because you
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would put cloth up in order to make the room
warmer and more comfortable. The walls are
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up to one and 1,5 meters thick. So obviously
they were very cool. The artists had heard
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stories of fabled plants and animals from
people who had gone traveling around the world
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but had never actually seen them themselves.
So the animals and plants you see here, you'll
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see some aspects that seem familiar, but overall
they are not how the animals look in real life.
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True, the faces are a little bit warped somehow.
- Yeah.
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Light was really expensive. You only had candles,
and so you built these in order to use the
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sunlight for as long as possible for working.
Because you couldn't afford to light candles all the time.
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I mean, there's also something quite idyllic
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about looking out at that beautiful view and
sitting at the window, isn't there?
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It is. I think back then people might not
necessarily have had the time to spend idling
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and looking out. Life. Life in medieval ages
is very, very tough. And there was very little
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time to just idyllically look out
and reflect on life.
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And enjoy the view.
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So this is one of about
40 fireplaces in the castle.
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With about 80 rooms it means every
second room had a fireplace, which was an
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extraordinary luxury at the time.
- I can imagine.
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And they all had iron or cast iron backs,
which heated up. And once they were hot,
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you could pick them up with certain tongs and
bring them to next room, which didn't have
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a fireplace, and that would give off the heat.
- It's very innovative.
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It is.
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So a castle like this probably requires quite
a lot of upkeep, am I right?
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Oh, it certainly does. We are
constantly renovating, repairing.
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There's always something that needs
to be done all the time. It takes a lot of
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energy and also a lot of finances, which is
why we're so grateful for our guests. Because
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without them, none of this would be possible.
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Of course, it must be quite an expensive task.
So are you very reliant on tourists?
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We are absolutely reliant. Without tourists,
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it would be impossible to upkeep this place.
We are very fortunate to also get help from
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the government and and the county, both financial
help as well as help with the knowledge and
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the people who really know the stuff and
help us in every way they can. But it would
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be financially impossible to upkeep the castle
without our guests.
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So this is one of my favorite pieces as well,
because it's a big wooden chopping block.
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It's not actually stoneified. It's just the
blood and the grease and the, you know, grime
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from centuries. But the wonderful thing about
it is: this house was finished in 1311 and
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this is the first floor. So it's the lowest
room as well. And we measured it and the chopping
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block fits neither through the window nor
through the door. So it must have been here
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when they finished this room.
- Wow. So this is probably one of the oldest
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pieces in the castle.
- Absolutely.
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Very nice.
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I mean, kitchens are something that everyone
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can also relate to, even though this doesn't
look like anyone's modern day kitchen. I assume
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this isn't where your meals
are cooked when you live here?
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No, no, it's not. It's not. It's actually
one of 3 kitchens, though. And this is
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from a different line of the Eltz family. So our
kitchen is somewhere else and it's now been
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modernized, but it's not that dissimilar.
I mean, you have an oven, it's a bread oven.
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You have a heating place. You have a
table where you can sit down and enjoy a meal.
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You have a place where you can wash your dishes
afterwards. You have a chopping block. You
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even have a fridge.
- Well, hats off to German technology.
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But what's it like then for you when you're
staying here? I mean, do you have dozens of
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staff waiting on you?
Do you cook your own meals?
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I absolutely cook my own meals. And I actually
have absolutely no staff looking after me here.
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No, those days are very long gone.
I live a very modern life and I don't
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have any staff looking after me.
- I guess for many people it would feel unusual
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living in a castle. But your life, day to
day, even if you spend it here, probably looks
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much the same as other people's. Is that right?
- Well, absolutely. It's especially now
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that you have home office because I work here.
So, you know, I get out my laptop in the mornings
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and I drink my coffee that I made myself in
my kitchen and in my coffee machine and, you
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know, answer my emails. And so, yeah, no,
it's I think most people would recognize
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it as being very similar to their own lives.
I'm just very, very fortunate
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that the surroundings are very beautiful.
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Well thank you so much for meeting me.
- You're welcome.
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It was lovely to chat to you and hear about your
story. I've really enjoyed hearing your story.
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It was great meeting you, thank you so much.
- Thank you!
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Well, there you have it. Life in a medieval castle.
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It has a certain flair, right? Maybe
it's not quite the fairytale lifestyle that
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you might expect. And sure, it would be cold
in the winter, but wouldn't it all be worth
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it just to have this whole place and the whole
surrounding area all to yourself?
