The Wartburg Castle, replete with drawbridge, dungeon, towers and castlekeep, overlooks the town of Eisenach, Thuringia, Germany. The Castle was founded in 1067. UNESCO added the Wartburg to the World Heritage List as one of the outstanding monuments of the Feudal Period of Central Europe.
Martin Luther lived here for a short while in 1521; long enough to translate the New Testament from the original Greek into German. Luther was hiding, he had been excommunicated by Pope Leo X.
Moritz von Schwind (1838-1890) painted these wonderful Frescoes in the Rittersaal and in the Saengersaal, Hall of the Knights and Hall of the Minstrels, respectively.
Richard Wagner used this setting as inspiration for his famous Tannhauser. Gina visited the Castle, as a young girl, on a school outing while still living in East Germany. At the time it was pointed out that the Devil had appeared to Martin Luther. Luther threw his ink well at the Devil leaving a large ink spot on the wall.
For years visitors would leave with a souvenir from the Middle Ages. The devil ink spot was reconstituted many times. And after all of this deceit, the story is only a legend. It never happened.
Gina, again, visited the Wartburg, this time as a citizen of the Great United States of America. Only this time she slept in the grand suite of the "Hotel at the Wartburg".
Gina
