This is the castle which inspired Mary Shelly to write her famous monster story. Situated on a hilltop it has an excellent view of the Rhine Plain, but the building itself was left uncared for over several hundred years and though it was restored in the 19th Century it is still a lot smaller and less grand than at it’s peak. Built in the 13th Century the burg was owned by the Frankenstein clan until 1662 when it became a military hospice. The architecture is relatively uninspiring, except for that of the chapel which has survived the ravages of time well and houses a life sized statue of Philip Ludwig of Frankenstein in alabaster and local red sandstone.

It is worth visiting mostly as a site with an important literary history. Shelly probably got part of the inspiration her story off her step mother who worked as a translator for the Brothers Grimm. It is thought to have been based on the castle’s locally notorious inhabitant, the chemist, biologist and theologian Johan Conrad Dippel (also the inventor of the colour Prussian Blue.) who was know to have conducted strange experiments and to have conducted autopsies, though nothing of the magnitude of the story.

Written by  Kynan Wieltz.

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