Today, I received the third postcard from Postcrossing. The sender lives in the Rhine Valley in Germany. There are a lot of vineyards over the area and one of the tourist spots of the place is the Pfalzgrafenstein Castle.
今天收到了第三張明信片，明信片的主人是一位居住在德國萊茵河谷的朋友，附近有很多的葡萄園，而這地區其中一個著名景點就是明信片上的普法爾茨城堡。
The Pfalzgrafenstein Castle was built in 1327, located on the Falkenau island, by King Louis IV, the Bavarian of the Holy Roman Empire. The castle is one of the few along the Rhine River that are never conquered or destroyed by war, ice or flood. The function of the castle was toll collecting station of the Holy Roman Empire. All ships passing the castle had to pay the toll or they were kept in the dungeon. It provided a large income to the Holy Roman Empire.
這座城堡早在1327年已建成，位於萊茵河的法爾克瑙島上，由神聖羅馬帝國皇帝，巴伐利亞的路易四世所建，普法爾茨城堡是萊茵河上少數從未被戰爭或洪水與結冰摧毀的城堡。普法爾茨城堡一直是神聖羅馬帝國的收費站，向來往的船隻徵收關稅，如船隻的貿易商不合作，將會被關到城堡的地牢，直到交付贖金為止，這城堡一直為神聖羅馬帝國提供龐大收入。
(photo credit: German Institute Taipei)
In 1866, Prussia, former Germany, bought the castle and stop the tolls collection in 1867. It then became a signal station until 1946. In 1946, it became the property of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany.
德國的前身普魯士於1866年購買了這城堡，並於1867年停止了收費站的功能，轉而為一個交通信號站。直到1946年，它成為了萊茵蘭 - 普法爾茨州的財產。
Pfalzgrafenstein Castle in 1900 (photo credit: wikipedia)
Now the castle is a museum and restored the colour scheme of the baroque period which demonstrates the environment of the 14th century. It perfectly demonstrates it as there is no any modern facilities in the museum, even light or toilet. Now the Pfalzgrafenstein Castle is part of the Rhine Gorge, a World Heritage Stage.
現時普法爾茨城堡是一個博物館，恢復了巴洛克時期的風格，展現14世紀時的情境，有趣的是，城堡真的完美展現了14世紀時的環境，館內是完全沒有現代化設施，連燈和洗手間都沒有，現時城堡已經是世界文化遺產萊茵峽谷的一部份。
The Rhine Gorge (photo credit: http://www.rhine-mosel.com)
Europeans always treasure heritage and keep the historical buildings in good status. If it is in HK, I believe that the Rhine River has been full of skyscrapers for sale. Great! I learn a new place!
歐洲其中一個很好的意識就是很會保留這些文化遺產，因為這些都是人類的寶藏，如果放到香港，這萊茵河兩岸應該全用來建樓大賺一番了！好，又認識了一個新地方！
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://aaronli.steemblogs.club/my-postcrossing-3-pfalzgrafenstein-castle-germany/