Glamoroso!
(15) Ghost Castles
‘A castle,’ says Baron Andrea Franchetti, adjusting his horn-rimmed glasses as he sprawls in a sky-blue deck chair in front of his private castello in the Grödner Valley, ‘is a poetic adventure.’ And Reinhold Messner, legendary mountaineer and lord of Juval Castle in the Vinschgau, ‘had dreamed of a castle since he was a small boy’. When, after years of expeditions, he could no longer bear confined spaces, his own castle seemed to him the stone-carved motto of his life: dreams are not enough — you must risk everything to make them real.
Nothing ignites our imagination like old castles and fortresses. No other buildings are so steeped in fairy tales and legends, in romance and grandeur. Castles conjure hazy images in our minds of knights and crown jewels, of ghosts and candlelight, of brave ancestors in oil paintings and clanking suits of armour, of power and baroque splendour, princes and patina, secret passages and medieval song.
“Mama, I’ll build you a castle,” trumpeted child star Heintje in the late sixties. Popular computer games and films of the 21st century still fuel dreams of life in a castle for the supposedly level-headed younger generation — stirred up by Harry Potter, Game of Thrones or The Lord of the Rings.
Once upon a time there was a dream. And because it never died, it lives on today: castles and fortresses are the most secure strongholds of our imagination, the natural home of our most romantic longings. But is it really like a fairy tale, being lord of a castle?
The colourFIELD production Castle Spirits peers behind castle walls and creeps along endless corridors across two 45-minute episodes, in search of myths and reality, scraps of family history and everyday life, hidden treasures and the mortgages needed to repair a leaking roof. Castle Spirits visits the half-empty fairy-tale castle as well as Brissac on the Loire; alpine legend Reinhold Messner in his Vinschgau castle Juval, amid Tibetan art and South Tyrolean rustic charm; and former Deep Purple guitar hero Ritchie Blackmore, who today performs exclusively in castles.
In the popular style of the now cult series Mondän! and the four-part series California Dreamin’, the writing duo Petra Höfer and Freddie Röckenhaus visit the Castle Spirits in 16:9 widescreen format. A good dozen private castles and fortresses — from the Loire Valley to the dramatic backdrop of the Dolomites. From the mist-shrouded Scottish Highlands to the aristocratic elegance of Normandy. With an inquisitive eye for frescoes and antiques, castle gardens and ghosts, family legends and the modern castle managers striving to preserve a unique heritage. For today’s castle owner needs humour, passion, and a secure income to hold on to their dream castle. As Baron Franchetti reveals: ‘Renovating a castle is better than lying on a beach on holiday and staring at girls’ backsides. In my castle there is always something to do.’
Castle Spirits takes viewers into this fairy-tale world — of ballrooms and princesses, ghost stories and aristocrats. Of castle dogs named León and the Peter Pan feeling that comes over the current owner of the Fischburg, built by the Wolkensteins for their children. Castles are always somehow from another world. The world we most love to dream of in the days between Christmas and New Year.
Nothing ignites our imagination like old castles and fortresses. No other buildings are so steeped in fairy tales and legends, in romance and grandeur. Castles conjure hazy images in our minds of knights and crown jewels, of ghosts and candlelight, of brave ancestors in oil paintings and clanking suits of armour, of power and baroque splendour, princes and patina, secret passages and medieval song.
“Mama, I’ll build you a castle,” trumpeted child star Heintje in the late sixties. Popular computer games and films of the 21st century still fuel dreams of life in a castle for the supposedly level-headed younger generation — stirred up by Harry Potter, Game of Thrones or The Lord of the Rings.
Once upon a time there was a dream. And because it never died, it lives on today: castles and fortresses are the most secure strongholds of our imagination, the natural home of our most romantic longings. But is it really like a fairy tale, being lord of a castle?
The colourFIELD production Castle Spirits peers behind castle walls and creeps along endless corridors across two 45-minute episodes, in search of myths and reality, scraps of family history and everyday life, hidden treasures and the mortgages needed to repair a leaking roof. Castle Spirits visits the half-empty fairy-tale castle as well as Brissac on the Loire; alpine legend Reinhold Messner in his Vinschgau castle Juval, amid Tibetan art and South Tyrolean rustic charm; and former Deep Purple guitar hero Ritchie Blackmore, who today performs exclusively in castles.
In the popular style of the now cult series Mondän! and the four-part series California Dreamin’, the writing duo Petra Höfer and Freddie Röckenhaus visit the Castle Spirits in 16:9 widescreen format. A good dozen private castles and fortresses — from the Loire Valley to the dramatic backdrop of the Dolomites. From the mist-shrouded Scottish Highlands to the aristocratic elegance of Normandy. With an inquisitive eye for frescoes and antiques, castle gardens and ghosts, family legends and the modern castle managers striving to preserve a unique heritage. For today’s castle owner needs humour, passion, and a secure income to hold on to their dream castle. As Baron Franchetti reveals: ‘Renovating a castle is better than lying on a beach on holiday and staring at girls’ backsides. In my castle there is always something to do.’
Castle Spirits takes viewers into this fairy-tale world — of ballrooms and princesses, ghost stories and aristocrats. Of castle dogs named León and the Peter Pan feeling that comes over the current owner of the Fischburg, built by the Wolkensteins for their children. Castles are always somehow from another world. The world we most love to dream of in the days between Christmas and New Year.
Credits
