Schwerin Castle on Lake Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany

© Hannes Wendt/Shutterstoc

Schwerin Castle on Lake Schwerin, Germany

The Schwerin Castle, standing on an island in Lake Schwerin in Germany, looks like a floating mansion from a fairy tale. But did you know that there were traces of a fortress on the lake as early as 941 CE? The former structure was built by the West Slavic Obodrite tribe, who inhabited what is today's Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Poland, particularly on the southern shores of the Baltic Sea. Later, in the 16th century, Duke Johann Albrecht I expanded it into a magnificent Renaissance residence. Finally, in the 19th century, the castle was rebuilt into what we see today. The architect Georg Adolf Demmler redesigned the building in the romantic neo-Gothic style. For centuries, the castle was the residence of the Grand Dukes of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and then became a center for art and culture with an impressive art collection. Today, you can visit the Mecklenburg State Museum and admire this magnificent castle from the inside.