The Soldiers' Building with the Well House. The
domestic offices, all of them three-storied, which a large court had
much need of, are joined together atthe south-east corner of the
courtyard. As purely practical buildings they lack any particular
exterior or interior decoration. Towards the Gate Tower they
end in the Soldiers' Building which on the ground floor contained
the guard-room and in the two upper storeys their quarters. Pro
jecting towards the courtyard the open Well House, a particularly
charming picture. The syenite columns bearing the late-Gothic
cross-vaulting of the Well House are very striking. Whereas every-
where else in the castle red sandstone is used, except for the grey
keuper of the plastic works of the richer palaces, syenite is found
in no other place in the castle. The cosmographer Sebastian Munster
(1552) tells us that the columns came from the remains of
Charlemagne's palace at Ingelheim. There is no doubt that these
artistic monoliths are of Roman origin from the Felsberg in the
Odenwald and once adorned a Roman building. We know that
they were brought here and used anew by Ludwig V when the
Well House was built. The well is some 50 feet deep.
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