Rosenberg, Kronach's Castle

 Rosenberg, or Castle Rose, looms over Kronach old town.

Begun a thousand years ago, it grew into a vast ancient military fortress that was augmented by Franconian bishop after bishop after Bavarian King over hundreds of years.

With walls as wide as motorways and as high as pyramids, it contains towers within towers, endless tunnels, canon emplacements, tar holes, expendable bridges and its own water supply from a well 20 meters deep.

It's massive bastions were largely tested only once, during the Thirty Years War, but it held. In WWI one Charles De Gaul was held as a prisoner of war there and in WWII its underground chambers were readied for weapons manufacture but fortunately it came to nothing and the war ended.

It also survived the Black Death by closing its gates! 

Amazingly, a 12th Century main wooden gate is still in place made of a dozens of whole tree trunks and weighing many tons! 

An imposing fortress on a huge scale, Rosenberg is now a tourist attraction with guided walks, a museum, a hotel, an occasional heavy metal festival and a beautiful beer garden, but was largely very quiet the day we visited and boiling hot, except for in its deep tunnel system, which is a constant fridge temperature all year round!

Nowadays the actual prison in Kronach is the large building below at the foot of Rosenberg, a remand centre for around 25 inmates and Grade 1 listed!  It's entire sides and rear are festooned with razor wire and you can actually hear the incumbents talking to each other through the cellar grates!