3-016-752 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Illustrations of the War in Schleswig: the Château of Gravenstein, Sundewitt, the Prussian head-quarters, 1864. '...Gravenstein, which is Field Marshal von Wrangel's present head-quarters..., formerly belonged to the Duke of Augustenburg, father of the Prince whose claim to be Duke of Schleswig-Holstein is a contingency of this war. Gravenstein is on the mainland, close to that arm of the sea which is called the Flensburg Fiord...The situation of Gravenstein is about half way upon the Sundewitt Peninsula, at an equal distance from Düppel and the town of Flensburg. The castle, which stands on the edge of a landlocked gulf, named Eckensund, encompassed with thick woods, is said to have been founded in the thirteenth century by a famous pirate named Alf, who made it a convenient hiding-place for the rich booty that he gained by his frequent predatory excursions on the Baltic Sea...The ruins of his building were still visible at the beginning of the seventeenth century; but the present edifice was reared, in 1757, by Christian Augustus, Duke of Augustenburg...The Château of Gravenstein itself has no pretensions to architectural beauty. It consists of a central pile, with two wings at right angles to it, built in a plain and unadorned style'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.