Does anyone know of any Christmas Markets inside a castle or next to one near Frankfurt. I"ll be staying in Frankfurt and already planning on visiting the Frankfurt, Cologne, Mainz/Weisbaden christmas markets. Would be nice to find one in a castle that is maybe not to far from Frankfurt (less then 2.5 hours).
Posted by
Paradise
6641 posts
"Would be nice to find one in a castle..."'
Hmm, don't know about that, but there's old-world Rüdesheim, about one hour by train from Frankfurt.
http://w-d-n.de/en/
Rüdesheim is the gateway to the Middle Rhine Valley where there are 40 castles and castle ruins in roughly 40 miles of river valley. Marksburg Catle in Braubach is about 1 hour beyond R'heim and open year-round.
Posted by
Frankfurt, Germany
8943 posts
If you are there on a weekend, you could visit the medieval Christmas market at Ronneburg Castle. We went last weekend and it was simply fantastic. This is a real defensive castle, not rebuilt. It is near Gelnhausen & Buedingen.
Bad Homburg has their Christmas market on the weekend and their market is in the courtyard of the palace and winds down into the old town. Marburg has a castle and is a lovely, medieval type town. All of these towns are an hour or less from Frankfurt.
Posted by
Frankfurt, Germany
8943 posts
Also this weekend are markets in Eltville on the Rhein and in Idstein. Both are great locations and very atmospheric. Both are 1 hour from Frankfurt by train.
Posted by
Danville, VT
12040 posts
I'm not sure if you'll actually find many Christmas markets "in" a castle itself, other than Ronneburg. But "around" or "at the foot of" a castle markets aren't too difficult to locate. I enjoyed the Idstein market several years ago, which spread out below the town's castle.
If you're in the Frankfurt region this weekend, Braunfels, which has a particularly large (rebuilt) castle, holds their market on Saturday and Sunday.
Check the schedules, though. Large city markets last for a few weeks, but smaller town markets (the types that would have a castle or Schloss) usually only stay open for a weekend or two.
PS- The towns that Jo mentioned are all worth a visit, Christmas market or not!
Posted by
Danville, VT
12040 posts
Update...
The current issue of German Life magazine has an article about Christmas markets in or around a castle/palace, although they're all in Bavaria. I've been to most of the towns they mentioned, but none of the Christmas Markets. The closest to Frankfurt mentioned in the article is Aschaffenburg, just upstream from Frankfurt on the Main river, near the Bavarian-Hessian border. The market apparently takes place on the palace square of Schloss Johannisburg, which is the unmistakable large palace that dominates the city.
Further away, the article also described the markets at Neues Schloss Herrenchiemsee, Burg Cadolzburg near Fürth, Schloss Rosenau in Coburg (not the much larger Veste Coburg, however), Burg Trausnitz in Landshut, the Rezidenz in Munich, and Schloss Schleißheim near Munich. The article also shows several pictures of a Christmas Market at Burg zu Burghausen, although it doesn't mention anything about it.