Last year, the castle, which Baron von Sarter had built at the end of the 19th century, was already transformed on film into the home of the steel manufacturer Alfred Nyssen, played by Lars Eidinger. The scenes were filmed in November 2016.

The three days of filming this year are from 6 to 8 March. The castle will also be completely closed to visitors on these days. Everything will be dismantled by 18 March.

The film production company did not respond any more favourably to Odenthal’s request to give guided tours of the set on a weekend than it did to the requests from numerous media companies to report on the filming. It cannot even be revealed which scenes are being shot in the castle scenery in the Siebengebirge. The suspense for TV viewers must be maintained.

Drachenburg Castle has already received its next request for July. ARD wants to film a six-part film there. “Of course for us, that’s the middle of the high season,” says Odenthal. But this problem can probably also be solved for a price.

Meanwhile, Odenthal has recorded a further record balance: with around 23,000 visitors, the castle lights has again exceeded visitor numbers from the previous year. In addition, in the first almost two months of this year, 11,000 more visitors have already come to the picturesque fairytale castle in the Siebengebirge than a year ago. The current record was set in 2018 with 232,000 visitors.

“We are very pleased. This snapshot makes us very happy,” Odenthal told the General Anzeiger on Monday. The number of visitors to the castle lights last year was exceeded by around 7000.

The good weather on the last two of the five weekends of the light spectacle played into the organisers’ hands. “The last two weekends were sensational, after the first three were more unsettled,” he said. Among other things, he attributes the rush to good advertising and the strong media presence.

(Original text: Hansjürgen Melzer. Translation: kc)