What is a castle? How does it differ from a fortress, a city palace, or a manor house? Eduard von Habsburg-Lothringen invites readers in this book to explore the ideal castle, where we encounter all the various forms found in the real castles of our countries. Thousands of castles stand in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. They range in size from a large house to that of a small town, and they can be square, round, or hexagonal, with or without a courtyard, surrounded by moats or not. On an imaginary tour through salons and corridors, bedrooms and dining rooms, libraries and castle kitchens, past paintings and tapestries, attics and ghosts, we get to know the castle and all its counterparts along with their inhabitants and ways of life. We spend the night in ancient beds.