Sunday, October 21, 2007

Frankenstein Castle


Last night we celebrated Halloween a little early. We went to Burg Frankenstein, a hilltop castle in Darmstadt. It is said to be the probable inspiration for Mary Shelly's novel, Frankenstein, but there is no actual proof.
She may have visited the castle in 1816 when she was living in Switzerland and heard the local folklore about Johann Conrad Dippel who lived in the castle. He was accused of grave robbing and preforming experiments on the dead bodies. There were even rumors that he could bring the dead back to life using the castle's prison as his laboratory.
The castle was built by the noble family von Frankenstein with records dating back to the 13th century. Although at one time it was a fairly large fortress, today only two towers and a chapel remain. The towers are pictured in my collage photo.
Every year at this time the ruins are transformed into a haunted house.
The Germans are slowly getting into the spirit of Halloween. Other than the crew that was working the haunted house, we were the only people dressed in costumes.
The funniest picture is when Bubba, (John, in case you didn't recognize him) meets Frankenstein. I think he truly was scared-look at his face!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

WHO is the "femme fatale" in the upper right hand corner? Goodness, Mary Beth, is that you????

Anonymous said...

Gads Woman! Fire your colorist!