Hohenzollern Castle – the ancestral seat of the Prussian King and Princes of Hohenzollern – stands proudly almost 900 metres above the Swabian Jura, fortified with towers and battlements.

Something of a Romanticist on the throne, King Frederick William IV of Prussia had a love of the fine arts and a poetically sentimental attachment to the Middle Ages. And that's probably why he commissioned Friedrich August Stüler, a top architect in Berlin at the time, to reconstruct the ruins of his ancestors' castle. He brought the overriding ideal vision of a medieval knight's castle to life – it may have been a bit behind the times but it is still stunning and overwhelmingly beautiful to this day.

The cornerstone was laid in 1852 and the reconstruction project was finally completed in 1867. The castle has 140 rooms in total, with highlights including the library with its incredible murals, the King's bed chamber, a family tree room and the Queen's room known as the Blue Salon. The interior design is splendid with its gilded coffered ceiling, stunning marquetry flooring and portraits of Prussian royals. And for anyone who isn't so bothered about monarchy ideals, the castle's own brewery makes its own beer called PREUSSENS.

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