Mühltal (dpa/lhe) – Rising energy costs also pose challenges for owners and tenants of castles in Hesse. “The costs are immense,” said Ralph Eberhardt from Frankenstein Castle in Mühltal. The restaurant in the castle therefore needs 29,000 liters of oil per year for heating. In the old walls, it is difficult to deal efficiently with oil and electricity. However, he wants to continue running the restaurant as planned throughout the winter.
Hasso Schiefler from the Hessian regional group of the German Castle Association emphasized that the temperatures in the often large rooms of inhabited castles differ depending on the walls and windows. “An energy renovation is not that easy because the monument protection has a say.” It is often not easy to replace windows for this reason.
In principle, however, heating in castles and palaces is the same as in normal single-family homes, said Matthias Helzel from the agency for historic real estate OHG. However, all the rooms in the historic buildings would not be heated at the same time anyway. The German Castle Association estimates the number of castles and palaces in Hesse at a few hundred objects, exact numbers do not exist.
