Inside the Vianden Castle

Wednesday, we hiked back up to the castle (yes, we hiked all the way to the top of that mountain), and took the castle tour. We enjoyed meandering and strolling through the old rooms, reading the details in the English-language brochure, and learning about the castle and its inhabitants, history, and culture. Here is a photo of the town of Vianden taken from the castle. You can see the town through the Byzantine windows of the castle keep. Here is the dungeon, which has been turned into a cafeteria today.

The grand banquet room.

The large kitchen (yes there's also a small kitchen).

The family dining room for the Count and his family, separate from the knights and other nobles who dine in the banquet room.

This is the outer walkway around the chapel.

One of the Count's main responsibilities is the protection of his serfs. When enemy armies approached, the peasants would flee to the safety of the castle. There, they would go about the business of living, including making of cloth, leather, maintaining weapons, etc.

One of the largest rooms was the "agricultural stores" area where they stored grain and other edibles for use in time of seige. The castle included a well dug 150 meters (460 feet) through solid rock, a magnificent engineering feat for the day.

Below is the knight's room, where the knights would suit up, go over battle plans, etc.

The castle was quite impressive, with large courtyards, bed chambers, and yes, even a torture chamber, although the torture chamber was not stocked as are the ones in Ghent, Bouillon, and the tower of London.