photo of the book, Roads to Ruins

Roads to Ruins: A book for the road and the coffee table

Convenient in size and flexibility, travels well and displays beautifully

The Roads to Ruins book was designed to serve a number of goals. First was to assemble a collection of true warrior castles (see my description under ABOUT) from Germany. Many books have been published to highlight several widely known castles representing countries around the world. That approach, while successful in its own way, fails to convey the enormity of the number of castles in any one nation. Neither does it provide any assistance to travelers seeking to experience castles first hand. The subject of castles is, in many countries, a very substantial attraction. My initial intent was to present a more realistic picture of the presence of so many castles, in this case, in Germany.

When I launched my project I had no idea how extensive the subject was. In my first meeting with the German Castle Association I was advised that the inventory of medieval buildings was roughly 12,000. That number included castles, mansions and palaces, but a verifiable breakdown is, for most purposes, unavailable. A great number of those that originated as warrior castles (constructed with defensive and often offensive capabilities incorporated into their design) were eventually modified as their battle needs diminished and they became more residential in nature. So the second goal was to draw the distinction between the castle (Burg) and other formal type structures we might classify as a palaces or mansions. (Schloss).

My third goal was to create a book that was as useful as it would be attractive. Every castle displayed in Roads to Ruins includes the nearest community as well as the GPS location. With this information any visitor with a vehicle under their control can plug the number into a navigator and arrive at the exact location.
Roads to Ruins also was designed to serve as a beautiful coffee table publication and as a guide to carry along on castle-hunting excursions.

It also boasts:

• High quality material in both the internal pages and the unique flexible cover style.
• Full color throughout the 184 pages.
• All content and design are new and original to this book and produced by the author. Included are 359 photographs, maps and illustrations of 195 locations.
• The book contains a brief, easy reading history of the development of the German nation and the castles that played a critical part in that history.
• A complete list of all the castles in the book along with their GPS locator.

Originally priced at $42.00 with taxes and shipping, I have now lowered the price to $29.00. Special price applies only to orders placed with the author. Orders placed through Amazon will incur fees. When ordered through this website the book will be shipped directly by me with great care. Please note: Due to the excessively high shipping costs orders outside the continental U.S. cannot be fulfilled except to military postal addresses. WE CANNOT SHIP OUTSIDE OF THE U.S.