Castles: Sanctuary or Solitary Confinement?

The Art of Unlearning, Chapter 8, Part 3

This is part three of our ongoing series seeking to “unlearn” an improper use of money and replacing it with a more thoughtful and hopefully biblical view

On our way to see some famous castles in Bavaria in 2018, Lisa and I stopped at a devoutly beautiful monastery in Ettal. The chapel, though not particularly large, was among the most elaborate we’ve ever seen. Each confessional was a work of art, with passionate and conscience-awakening pictures of Jesus being crucified and beaten, vivid reminders to each confessor of the cost of the forgiveness they were seeking.

The ceiling of the cupola is so elaborately painted you momentarily forget the extraordinary vision of the Alps waiting for you as soon as you step outside.

During our 2018 visit, forty-one Benedictine brothers still lived there.

These brothers have taken a vow of poverty which means none of them own their surroundings, but they certainly don’t live in squalor. Far from it. No less a light than Dietrich Bonhoeffer chose to spend several months here, working on Ethics, and already involved in the Resistance against Hitler.

Bonhoeffer enjoyed this place but didn’t own it. Today, over three dozen Benedictine brothers call it “home” but have no legal claim to possession. When you can freely inhabit such a place for your entire life, what is possession other than a piece of paper that contains a government opinion about who gets the profits of the property after it is sold?

Lisa and I travelled further west to Schwangau, Germany to see the famous Neuschwanstein Castle built in the nineteenth century by Ludwig II, King of Bavaria. Neuschwanstein Castle is the inspiration behind Disneyland’s famous castle.

Ludwig’s building ambitions (he started construction on two other castles in addition to Neuschwanstein, while his family already possessed the immense and immaculate Residence in Munich) brought his family to the brink of financial ruin and no doubt played a large part in his removal, purportedly for mental illness.

The castle, though, truly is amazing, definitely worth seeing, but Ludwig resided there for a total of…six months.

Not six years.

Six months.

Imagine the time it took to consult, to build, and to oversee construction. And then the cost—ultimately, his rule and authority and life.[1]