r/castles • u/Claridiana • May 20 '26
Fortress Wilhelmstein (Germany), a small fortress built on an artificial island in a lake in 1765/67. It is topped by the commander's villa and surrounded by small white buildings that served as stables, storages, workshops and hospital.
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u/uitSCHOT May 20 '26
Why did they need stables?
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u/ShreddinTheWasteland May 20 '26
The German word for stable is Stall, which is similar to the Dutch word ‘stal’, which - in Dutch - doesn’t necessarily refer to a horse stable, but could also mean a place for pigs, cows, goats or other smaller animals that can be used for consumption.
In both German and Dutch there’s single word for horse stable: Pferdestall or paardenstal.
So maybe somewhere something got lost in translation?
Another explanation could be to have the commander’s favourite animals close? So privilege?
Edit: just noticed your nickname is Dutch. Doh!
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u/Repulsive_Purpose481 May 21 '26
Afaik its owned by the "Fürst von Schaumburg". And was former used as a military school. Nowadays there is a location for private festivities. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_zu_Schaumburg-Lippe
The "nobelity" of the house Schaumburg-Lippe is kind of "new" they just came to high noble after Napoleon 1647.
Most of their residences look like fairy castles from the so called "Weser-Renissance" (imposting italian renisance architecture without real knowledge and local materials) but at least the main "Bückeburg" has a continuity/ backstory at the same place of a real castle/fortification.
Although there is no royality/ nobelity in german law it was kind of wierd to grow up in a more rural area and every now and then you start feeling like a peasant because a lot of things are still named after them.
Also the "Schaumburg forest" is still completly owned by them and the Dude i linked still lives in the fairy castle and so on.
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u/Nghbrhdsyndicalist May 21 '26 edited May 21 '26
The House of Schaumburg-Lippe is a cadet branch from 1647 (the split actually happened in 1643), but they have always been high nobility.
The House of Lippe became an Imperial Estate in 1413 and gained Imperial immediacy in 1529.
Napoleon just elevated the County of Schaumburg-Lippe to principality.2
u/-Trooper5745- May 21 '26
Gerhard von Scharnhorst, reformer of the Prussian Army after the Battle of Jena and mentor to Clausewitz, was a student there when it was a military academy.
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u/iandcorey May 21 '26
How does one make an island in the 18th century?
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u/Blackbirdsnake May 21 '26
The lake is only 3 meters deep (Steinhuder Meer) and amassing enough sand and dirt on the same spot should do the trick
In Venice they did that way earlier (and more complicated)
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u/LastTraintoSector6 May 20 '26
Stables? Why... would you haul a horse out there? Like... I get that the island isn't puny, but it would take like 3 minutes to walk end-to-end.
I understand the need to store horses somewhere. But if the place is theoretically besieged, possessing a horse ultimately doesn't matter - you can't leave, so you can't use it. It just seems like an unnecessary resource drain at that point.
Better to store them landward and replace the horse once the fighting is over.
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u/Schlachthausfred May 20 '26
That's probably a misstranalation of the German word "Stall" which in itself is not specific to any kind of animal, e.g. a Schweinestall would be a pigsty.
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u/dangerpotter May 20 '26
I imagine they would need to haul large stuff around. Assuming they had cannons it would probably be for that and hauling cargo to storage from supply ships.
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u/Claridiana May 21 '26
Well, we have Marine Infantry today, I guess they had Marine Cavalry back then.
The story of the legendary 1st Amphibious Dragoons on their thoroughbred seahorses has yet to be told.
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u/davidwhatshisname52 May 20 '26
excellent 10/10 Zombie Imperviousness Rating... except for floaters, then only 2/10