Innocents Abroad: Chapter 38 - Forchtenstein Castle, Part 2

Continuing with our tour of the castle that was never defeated, we come to the main reason for its current fame - the armory and weapons collection. Room after room of old muskets, body armor, spears and knives, equipment, helmets, uniforms, insignias, cannon and cannonballs, shot - whatever an army used, they have it at the burg. There were many rooms that displayed body armor, and I didn't notice till I was doing the blog, but apparently we didn't get any pictures of them. It wouldn't do any good without something to show the scale, but we were struck by the small size of the armor. The vast majority of them looked like they would fit someone my size or smaller; none approached Bob's size. You read that people are taller and larger today, and here is proof. As we wandered through the many, many rooms, we were of course impressed by the large numbers of artifacts. Obviously, I wouldn't put pictures of all that on the blog so I just tried to offer a sampling.

Please note that some of the pictures are fairly dark (even after I've brightened them) because they don't allow flash photography. Some pictures we had unknowingly used our flash before we were told.

This is a display of old muskets (ca. 1600) and helmets.
Some of the muskets still have bayonets attached, and I
saw knicks on some of the bayonets. I didn't want to
think about how those knicks got there.

Bottom middle of picture - ankle restraints; center - neck
and arm restraints; center left - long sword used for
executions (also has knicks on it).

This is the execution chair used for 200+ years at the burg.

These are saddles. Bob recently learned that when his great-
great-grandfather came to America from Prussia, he was a
saddler and leather worker. So it was interesting for him to
see the type of work his ancestors may have produced.

This is a remnant of a regimental battle flag. During one of
the battles against the Turks, a sergeant fought against over-
whelming odds to save the flag from capture. He received a
decoration for his courage which is also on display at the burg.

This is one of the many rooms of muskets.

Officers have always had it a little better. This is
a tent of an officer.

Like all European aristocrats, the Esterhazys loved hunting. There was room after room of their hunting trophies. Also included were several landscape style paintings of hunting parties.

Here is one of many cases of antlers.

I guess the real deer heads have rotted because this is
a fake head. Bob liked the hawk in the picture.

Daddy used to take me hunting, and I shot a javelina
in East Texas once. This boar reminded me of that.

This is a typical flight of unevenly worn stairs. It
takes about 5 of these to get to another story. I
felt like all I did was climb up and down.

This is an outside door leading into the kitchen area.
Note the small bell on the upper right.

This is the spiral staircase from hell. It leads
round and round, down and down, forever, to the
kitchen area. The steps were very narrow, and the
handrail didn't feel entirely stable. This really
freaked me out.

One of my sons-in-law is a firefighter, and I'll bet he is
really happy he's doing it in the modern era. This manual
water pump is the way they fought fires in the burg. It's
designed to be carried by four men. Bob estimated it holds
about 40 gallons. At eight pounds per gallon plus about 100
pounds for the pump itself, that's considerably over 400
pounds the (much smaller, remember) men had to carry. And
this was after filling it with buckets from the nearby cistern.

Yeah, it's a postcard picture. Ours were way too dark to
show up. Without the ability to use flash, there just isn't
enough light from the two very small windows. They built fires
on top of the giant hearth and roasted chickens and meat on the
spits above. The brick floor is very uneven. It must have
miserably hot in there during the summertime cooking over a big
roaring fire.

Close-up of the copper pots and pans.

Bob got all excited by this. It's a pressure pot that's over
200 years old. The guide toggled the regulator. One of Bob's
favorite ways to cook is with his pressure cooker back home.

Now we come to the castle well dug in 1637. We didn't take any pictures of the whole well structure because that's when it was storming. The well is located inside a small building that looks almost like a summerhouse. There's an interesting story behind the well's construction. All the workers were brought from Italy for the renovation and expansion of the burg, and the well workers were apparently the best of their profession. The well is 461.5 feet deep and perfectly and smoothly constructed. The stones lining the well interior are as smooth as if they had been done by machine. Imagine how hard it must have been as they dug down, shoring up with stone as they went. They had been promised they would be returned to Italy when they finished their work, but for some reason - probably because they were so good and/or because no one cared about the feelings of "lowly" workers - they were never allowed to return home. They were sent to other sites to dig more wells.

This picture shows the top of the well and the lower part
of the huge drive wheel.

This shows the axle. There was a huge chain that wrapped
around the axle. Two men walked in the drive wheel, and
as they stepped up, the wheel rotated down, wrapping the chain
around the axle, which pulled the buckets of water up. I hope
this makes sense - Bob explained it to me, but something may
have been lost in translation from him to me.

This is the floor around the well. I wonder if the "P" on many
of the bricks refers to Prince Paul Esterhazy, the ruler when
the well was constructed.