A few minutes up the Rhine there’s a fairytale Gothic Revival castle high on the Drachenfells hill over the right bank of the river.

A rack railway, the Drachenfelsbahn, lifts you up from the resort of Königswinter.

This romantic muddle of towers and spires was completed in just two years up to 1884 as an ostentatious residence for the banker Stephan von Sarter.

He never chose to live in Schloss Drachenburg, and after he passed away the castle was put to a variety of uses before gaining protection as a monument.