Baroque splend­our for the eye and ear

Wow! How magnificent! The sight alone of the staircase at Augustusburg Palace near Brühl is overwhelming: Columns and figures made of white marble shine next to innumerable filigree frescoes framed by wall and ceiling paintings. The eye lingers on the grand staircase with the richly ornamented railings. Apart from that, you don’t know where to look first. That is how overboard the Baroque art of master builder Balthasar Neumann is. Then the music starts. First the strings, then the wind instruments and the organ. Music from the Baroque and Romantic periods fills the magnificent staircase every year at the Brühl Palace concerts and the world’s only Haydn festival. These are the moments in which music and architecture melt together to become a complete work of art. A true fireworks display for both the eye and ear.

The wonders continue

Wow! How magnificent! And the splendour continues away from the stairway too: Just a short walk away through the pretty park lies the small Falkenlust hunting lodge, once the private refuge of Prince Clemens August. Most prominent among the lusciously decorated rooms is the gold and blue hall of mirrors, once admired by the young Mozart. The two castles, together with their Baroque gardens and their secluded hedge gardens, fountains and mirror pools, as well as a chapel decorated with shells, minerals and crystals, form the most beautiful creation of the Rococo period in the Rhineland – and the Brühl castles and gardens UNESCO world heritage site.

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