A Night in a Castle—Without the Ghosts

I can now confirm with 100 % certainty that the castle hotel where we stayed was not haunted. At least, no ghosts introduced themselves to me. It was actually a very comfortable place to spend the night.

Every castle has a dungeon, because the castle owner was also te law in the sea, and could punish law breakers

The hotel itself does not date back to the middle of the 10th century, but parts of the castle do. As I walked around the property, I could not help wondering about the history of the castle and the surrounding area. Who lived here? What was daily life like? What had these walls witnessed over the centuries?

The Castile built in the 1000’s continues to stand as monument to their building skill.

This was one of three castles in the immediate area, and each served an important purpose. The castles helped protect the nearby villages and the hundreds—perhaps thousands—of people who lived throughout the region.

During the Middle Ages, castles were more than impressive homes for wealthy lords. They were part of a larger system that connected the nobility, the soldiers, the farmers, the tradespeople, and the villagers. The lord depended on the villagers to farm the land, produce goods, pay taxes, and support the local economy. In return, the villagers depended on the lord and the castle for protection, leadership, and stability.

This peaceful inner courtyard offers a place to sit, relax, and imagine the generations who once walked these same historic grounds.

It was not necessarily an equal relationship, and life for the average villager was certainly difficult. Still, everyone was connected. The lord, the castle, and the surrounding community all needed one another to survive.

A view from our room overlooking the historic village below—a community that has survived through the centuries and remains an active village today.

That is one of the things I enjoy most about traveling through places like this. A castle is not simply an old building or a beautiful place to spend the night. It is part of the story of an entire community. Standing there, it was easy to imagine generations of people living, working, trading, farming, and looking toward those castle walls for protection.

We also traveled into nearby Arnstadt and visited the church where Johann Sebastian Bach played the organ and composed music early in his career. Centuries later, that same church offered protection to people protesting the policies of the East German government before the Berlin Wall fell. One building connected two very different periods of German history: the music of Bach and the courage of citizens demanding change.

The immense organ inside the church where Johann Sebastian Bach once worked and played—a remarkable connection to one of history’s greatest composers.

Sometimes history becomes much more real when you are able to sleep in the middle of it—even if your room is in the much newer, and thankfully ghost-free, part of the property.