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Hello lovely readers!
Last month, my husband and I took a little trip to Brühl, to visit the Augustusburg Palace! Today I will tell you how this tour was and hopefully help out those of you who are planning to go there too.
I love castles and palaces, simple as that. Visiting this type of construction is the best type of tourism for me and, lucky for us, we have several of them around here! This city, Brühl, is 40km from Cologne, but very easy to get to by public transport.
The ride takes 1 hour and costs €3.90. We didn’t have to pay for the trip, since this is one of the routes covered by my husband’s Job Ticket. If you don’t live or are not in Cologne, you can check the best route to Brühl on the VRS website. Search for ways to get to the Brühl Bahnhof, which is the central station, located right in front of the palaces!
Yes! Palaces, plural, because there are two in fact: Augustusburg e Falkenlust.
The Augustusburg Palace is one of the first works of Rococo, also called “Late Baroque”, in Germany and used to be home to the Prince-Elector Of Cologne and the Archbishop Clemens August. The construction of the palace began in 1725 and ended in 1765! Close to the palace, there is a hunting house called Falkenust, which took eight years to be built since it’s a lot smaller and maybe 1% less luxurious: from 1729 to 1737.
Both are in baroque style and were classified as UNESCO heritage in 1984. The two majestic constructions are surrounded by this beautiful Garden:
The style of the gardens reminds a little of the palace of Versailles, since it was created by Dominique Gerard, apprentice of Andre Le Nôtre also known as landscaper of the french version. The view of the garden from the terrace of the palace is stunning!
Another important name associated with the palaces of Brühl is Balthasar Neumann, renowned engineer and architect, responsible for it’s beautiful marble staircase.
The visit inside the palace is very interesting and not time consuming or exhaustive. It’s a nice way to spend a Sunday, for example. You won’t need to walk too much and after the visitation, you can enjoy the refreshing shades of the gardens! My personal recommendation is to enjoy the view during a nice picnic! Here is what we did: we took a backpack each, with snacks and beach towels to sit on the lawn while enjoying our meal!
Anyway… During the visit, you must leave the bags and backpacks in a locker, available at the reception. You must place a coin ( €1 ) to trigger the padlock and remove the key. When you return the key, your coin is also returned. So, it is possible to: arrive in Brühl, see the castles, take the backpacks, have a meal and still stroll through the gardens.
If you are more practical, rest assured that it is possible to have lunch there. There is a small restaurant in the surroundings of the palaces, which serves snacks, meals and beverages. But the palaces are also very close to the city centre, which has more restaurants options and cafes or ice cream parlours.
As of opening hours: From Tuesdays to Fridays, from 9am until noon and from 1h30pm until 4pm. On the weekends, the palace is open from 10am until 5pm. Which means, the castles are closed on Mondays! The guided tour takes more or less 40 minutes and is only available in German. But you can choose audio-guide, which is free of charge, and is available in: English, French, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese (from Portugal), Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Japanese and Korean.
Regarding visitation prices:
| Max Ernst Museum + Augustusburg Palace + Falkenlust Hunting House | € 15 per person |
| Max Ernst Museum + Augustusburg Palace | € 12 per person |
| Max Ernst Museum + Falkenlust Hunting House | € 9,50 per person |
These prices are more than fair, as the interior of the Augustusburg Palace is breathtaking! Unfortunately, we didn’t visit the hunting house, so I can’t talk about it much. I imagine it’s equally amazing. If you have been there, tell me about it in the comment section!
That’s it for today!
I hope you enjoyed it, and I’ll see you on the next one.
♦ A imagem utilizada como cover nesse post foi obtida através do portal Pixabay
