Frankenberg Castle

North Rhine-Westphalia · Germany · Castle

In the castle pond at Frankenberg, Fastrada's enchanted ring is said to rest – the ring that bound Charlemagne to his dead queen.

The moated castle of Frankenberg in Aachen is inseparably linked to one of the realm's oldest tales of love and haunting. Charlemagne loved his wife Fastrada beyond all reason – and when she died he could not part from her corpse. The explanation was an enchanted ring, which Archbishop Turpin finally found on the dead queen and threw into a lake near Aachen. In the legend's best-known version, that lake is the castle pond at Frankenberg, and Charlemagne built the castle on its shore so he would always be near the ring. At night a female figure is said to move by the still water, and the pond has never quite released its hold on the city.

FAQ

Where is Frankenberg Castle located?

Frankenberg Castle is in Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

More haunted places in Nordrhein-Westfalen

• Nordkirchen Palace North Rhine-Westphalia · Palace
• Witches' Kitchen of Tecklenburg North Rhine-Westphalia · Natural site
• Tempelhof Village Church Berlin · Church
• Lake Straussee Brandenburg · Natural site
• Franciscan Friary Ruins Berlin · Ruin
• Kleist's Grave at Kleiner Wannsee Berlin · Natural site
• The Tegel Haunting Berlin · Haunted house
• Devil's Lake in the Müggel Hills Berlin · Natural site

Accounts are drawn from local folklore and visitor reports.

Image: Sir Gawain · CC BY-SA 2.0 de · Wikimedia Commons