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A series from Germaneum

AURA

Castles and Palaces of Germany

Not a travel guide. Stories about places that know more than they let on: castles on basalt, palaces with poise, and the traces that travelled from here out into the world.

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Deutsch

Volume 1 out now in German · English edition coming soon

Setting off

A book like a family on an outing

Each AURA volume tells the story of one landscape and its castles, palaces and gardens. No opening times, no star ratings and never the words “hidden gem”. Time for the detour instead.

7 + 7

The big ones and the little ones

Seven main chapters that are allowed to take their time. Each brings along a detour, the little sibling. Skip them if you like. You’ll miss the punchline, though.

Rail

Arriving without a satnav

Every chapter ends with a box: getting there by bus and train, the key links and one last look back. The landscape in between tells half the story.

World

Further than the border

Every place has a story that reaches beyond Germany. From Catherine the Great to Dürer drawings that survived the war in, of all places, a torture chamber.

Arriving · Volume 1

Cover: Moritzburg Castle

AURA · Volume 1 · 2026

Beyond Dresden

Splendour and Legend

Castles on basalt, palaces that can’t make up their minds whether to be fortified or elegant, and gardens that were never finished and are perfect precisely for that reason. Fourteen places around Dresden, from the countess who spent forty-nine years at Stolpen to the column that measures distance in hours.

Available

E-book

Coming soon

English edition: Beyond Dresden – Splendour and Legend

German edition

Out now

Dresdner Land – Pracht und Legende · Online at Kindle, Tolino and more.

Audiobook

Coming soon

It sounds even better read aloud. The audiobook is in production.

One last look back

More pictures of every place at

dresden.germaneum.de

  1. I.Forty-Nine YearsStolpen CastleFrom Swords to RucksacksHohnstein Castle
  2. II.Luxury for Home UseRammenau Baroque PalaceHunting Meets IndustryKlippenstein Castle
  3. III.The Trendsetter on Castle HillAlbrechtsburg MeissenPolitics in the Language of FlowersZabeltitz Palace
  4. IV.Where Princes Played CaptainMoritzburg CastleBaroque with Added FizzSchloss Wackerbarth
  5. V.The Unconquerable GiantKönigstein FortressThe Responsibility of a ViewSonnenstein Castle
  6. VI.A Paradox in StoneWeesenstein CastleHow Far Is an Hour?Lauenstein Castle
  7. VII.The Search for the PalaceGroßsedlitz Baroque GardenA Palace Made of GlassPirna-Zuschendorf Manor

“The land beyond Dresden is not a place you tick off. It is a landscape that invites you back.”

From “Coming Back”

Coming soon · Volume 2

AURA · Volume 2 · in progress

Middle Rhine

Tolls and Tales

Downstream from Bingen to Koblenz, through the Upper Middle Rhine Valley World Heritage Site. Seven castles, seven detours and one fortress for looking back. It is about tolls that built castles, about Prussians who properly invented the romantic Rhine, and about a woman on a rock who never existed and has still been distracting boatmen for two hundred years. Queen Victoria has been. So has Mark Twain.

BingenAbout 65 kilometres downstream →Koblenz
Left bankRight bankIRhein­steinReichen­steinSoon­eckIIStahl­eckIIIPfalz­grafen­stein (mid-river)Guten­felsIVSchön­burgLore­leyVRhein­felsKatzLieben­stein · Sterren­bergVIMarks­burgVIIStolzen­felsLahn­eckEhren­breit­stein
I–VII main chaptersno number: detoursEhrenbreitstein: the look back at the end

And after that?

More landscapes are being planned.

Coming back

The author

Andreas Schulz doesn’t write travel guides. He tells stories about places that know more than they let on: castles on basalt, palaces that can’t make up their minds whether to be fortified or elegant, and columns that measure distance in hours. At Germaneum he collects what Germany has told the world – sometimes loudly, sometimes in passing. He prefers to travel by train and bus, because the landscape in between tells half the story, and he always takes a moment longer than planned. So far he has always come back. Mostly.