Schwerin's fairy-tale castle sits on an island between the Schweriner See and the Burgsee, connected to the city by a bridge. The current building dates mostly from the mid-nineteenth century, built in a romantic historicist style that draws heavily on French Renaissance chateaux, particularly Chambord. It serves as the seat of the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern state parliament, but the state apartments on the first floor are open as a museum — magnificent reception halls, ballrooms, and ducal living quarters that give a vivid picture of nineteenth-century court life. The surrounding castle gardens are free to enter and perfect for a lakeside walk with views back to the turrets.
Schweriner Schloss
Fairy-tale island castle housing the state parliament and museum
A story
The island has been fortified since at least 973 AD, when it appears in a chronicle by the bishop Thietmar of Merseburg. The present romantic edifice — with its 15 towers and 653 rooms — was completed in 1857, the same year as Neuschwanstein was begun in Bavaria. Schwerin got there first, and the two castles have been compared ever since. Schwerin's has the better setting.