Hohenzollern Castle
The current castle was built by Hohenzollern scion Crown-Prince Frederick William IV of Prussia. Traveling through southern Germany en route to Italy in 1819 he wished to learn about his family's roots, so climbed to the top of Mount Hohenzollern. He would write in 1844 as King:
He engaged Friedrich August Stüler, who had been appointed Architect of the King for the rebuilding of Stolzenfels Castle in 1842 while still a student and heir of Karl Friedrich Schinkel, to design a new castle. Stüler began work on an ornate design influenced by English Gothic Revival architecture and the Châteaux of the Loire Valley in 1846. The impressive entryway is the work of the Engineer-Officer Moritz Karl Ernst von Prittwitz, considered the leading fortifications engineer in Prussia. The sculptures around and inside the castle are the work of Gustav Willgohs. Like Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria, Hohenzollern Castle is a monument to German Romanticism which incorporated an idealized vision of a medieval knight's castle. Lacking some of the fantastic elements and excesses of Neuschwanstein, the castle's construction served to enhance the reputation of the Prussian Royal Family.
Province of Hohenzollern
Hohenzollern was established in 1850 by merging Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and Hohenzollern-Hechingen, formerly independent principalities ruled by the Catholic branch of the House of Hohenzollern, that ceded their sovereignty to the Kingdom of Prussia ruled by the Protestant Hohenzollern branch and used the same dynastic coat of arms. Hohenzollern enjoyed all the rights of a full-fledged province of Prussia, including representation in the Prussian parliament, but its military matters and some civil matters were governed by the Oberpräsident of Rhine Province. Hohenzollern was Prussia's smallest province until Berlin city was separated from Brandenburg in 1881, and the least-populous with the last census recording 74,151 inhabitants in 1939. The province's size meant it was administered as a single "Regierungsbezirk" (district) from Sigmaringen, the provincial capital, which was further subdivided into seven "Oberamtsbezirke", although only four of these remained by 1925, when they were merged and re-divided as two new "Kreise". Hohenzollern was an exclave of Prussia, surrounded by Baden and Württemburg, and was the southernmost province.