Show za r I 1 M ap 6 JAM r C A two hours walk from the capital of corfu in ii a southerly direction through a very dingy suburb called san rocc allocco 0 and past the little village of Ga sturl brings the dust covered tourist within sight of one of the most glorious architectural creations in ex stence thickly surrounded by clumps st af grayish green olive trees and verdant orchards the Achil lelon the fairy castle of that restless unfortunate empress who was to die under a murderers steel emerges like a white phantom of the past the beauty of its outward form a clever anil tatlyn of the Pomp elau style Is only matched by its lavish and highly artificial ienner decoration on which empress elizabeth la Is said to have spent and by the magnificent views it commands the achil lelon was recently inhabited by the german emperor his consort daughter and a full staff of courtiers and the affiliations thereby created with conceptions of prussian soberness correctness ness common sense and other un romantic Brandenbur glan attributes greatly take away from that castles bewitching poetry A thousand pities the Achil lelon then Is the forty ninth addition to the residences of the german emperor ordinary in german parlance every one of these 49 structures or estates is called a kalser kaiser liches schloss an imperial castle but the truth Is that only a few of them amongst them the well known and much depicted residences in berlin and potsdam are real castles in an architectural sense ot of the word and still fewer in a historic sense formerly built as strongholds strong holds perched upon peaks or squatted in the middle of marshes in order to make them impregnable and to render all approach difficult the castles gradually gave way to ambitious modern modem residences the historical situation in respect to castles and royal manors Is not analogous in germany to that in other countries the royal seats in germany are not national for this reason the restoration of timeworn time worn castles does not go on according to a large liberal insight as to what Is of the first importance it goes on unsystematically according to a dynastic feeling of what may conduce to the dyna distinction A comparatively uninteresting castle like the iloh hoh konigsburg to quote one example out of many Is therefore restored as the outcome of an imperial whim at an enormous expense while seats of overwhelming wh elming historic importance as tor for instance honigs wusterhausen are allowed to rot they are too unpretentious tent ious one consequence of this system or rather lack of system Is that many of these historically or otherwise interesting places are almost unknown outside of germany only the most conscientious or english tourists will acquire a more than superficial knowledge of those quiet nooks mandof which wore were in former centuries centers of political or cultural Import importance arice the german emperors residences are mostly plain country seats or mere shooting boxes so that the startling i total 49 loses much of its sensational character when properly scrutinized among his various berlin and potsdam palaces the royal castle on the spree la Is one of the largest city residence buildings of a compact mass in the whole of germany quite remarkable for beautiful surroundings roun dings Is druhl bruhl castle near cologne which has not been inhabited for over years it Is a handsome building erected in 1728 with a very fine marble staircase and excellent fresco paintings by Carli ont marshal davoust resided in it several years and it was afterwards assigned to th fourth cohort of the french legion of honor napoleon 1 I dwelt there for a 11 day in september 1804 for many years it w was as abandoned to decay then restored in 1842 but even after this tile the beautiful palace looked barren and deserted like bruhl many royal residences are being ignored and neglected by their owners one of 0 the favorite resorts of emperor william and his family seems to be his domain of Ca dinen near elbling situated in a most charming forest landscape it has become wide IPA MY rz 11 r ly known through the emperors empe rora successful experiment as a manu fac and exporter the handsome majoli majol leas cas produced at find and publicly sold all over the world are arc highly valued by connoisseurs william II 11 to Is also the owner of a steam brick factory and alcohol distillery at the same place and he attends to the details of his business with the cir of a trained merchant taunus district between the rhine and maine famous tor for its ita ex bollent wine healthful mineral waters beautiful scenery and wealth of his reminiscences Is fairly studded with castles and burghs burgha of the most ancient types the most interesting of the historical memories of this re glon are the traces of bf the ancient roman palisades ded moat or fortified boundary of the empire which stretched from the rhine below cob lenz along the summit of the taufua taunus to the maine blaine and was wag carried on to the danube on the southern side this thid fortified line was backed by several castles one of which the saalburg survives in part and after being re stored to its original appearance waa in 1901 converted into a national museum one of the most instructive historical memorials of ancient roman life to be found north of the alps im med mediately lately north of the taunus resort of cronberg Is schloss Friedrich built tor for empress frederick in 1889 1897 the place where she died I 1 1901 some of the royal estates have been turned into public institutions as for instance Oran lenburg which lift has become a seminary for female teachers and bleder which was given over to the public as a park and resort tor for recreation both are in the vicinity of berlin Oran lenburg was founded in 1651 by tho the wife of the great elector who also established an orphans asylum near by but all the emperors landed possessions outside of the capital be they proud castles or modest villas shrink back into the second rank as far as aa historical importance is concerned when compared with one small insignificant if not shabby looking cottage situated at halt half an hours distance by rail from berlin it was the favorite summer resort of frederick william I 1 L the second king of prussia 1713 1740 who spent a few months every year at this unattractive place together with his family including his eldest son frederick whom history afterwards was to adorn with the glorious cognomen the great the famous grunewald a cultivated forest in tile the immediate neighborhood of berlin contains a much used shoot ing lodge or Jagd schloss which was founded some years ago by electon joachim 11 II and stands today to day nearly in the same shape as in 1550 popular superstition which clings to to several castles tho the white lady of the berlin palace enjoys in ter national reputation has also caught hold of this innocent sporting abode joachim had a mistress anna sydow the wife of a bell founder of fascinating beauty popularly called the fair tho the relations between the elector and the scheming rapacious woman became so scandalous that joachims son johann george immediately after the formers death had biad anna brought to and locked up in the fortress where she died after four years imprisonment in 1675 1575 C A DRATTER |