Stuttgart through my eyes [A Royal Home]

I spent a whole day visiting the royal home of the Hohenzollern House, the Hohenzollern Castle. Also called The Palace in the Clouds, the ancestral castle of the Hohenzollern, sometimes shrouded in clouds, looks like it was taken straight out of a fairy tale.

The House of Hohenzollern is one of the most important dynasties in European history, providing kings and emperors of Prussia (1415-1918) and Germany (1871-1918). The House took its name from this castle, situed in Swabia.

Burkhard I, count of Zollern in the 11th century, is the earliest recorded ancestor of the dynasty. After the third and fourth generation, the line split in two branches: Zollern-Hohenberg, which disappeared by 1486, and the counts of Nuremberg, whose descendants make up the current House.

Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen is a branch of the Hohenzollern dynasty, which led Prussia and later Germany until 1918.

In Romania, the House of Hohenzollern was chosen as ruling dynasty in 1866 by the political leadership around Ion Bratianu. This dynasty included Carol I, prince (1866-1881) and King of Romania (1881-1914), Ferdinand I (1914-1927), Michael I (1927-1930, 1940-1947) and Carol II (1930-1940). [source]