Thursday, 10 August 2006

Nicolas Cage's new home is his castle

The magnificent Bavarian residence has 28 rooms

Nicolas Cage can now say that his home is his castle – literally: Last month he bought a castle in Bavaria called Schloss Neidstein. The inspiration? His mom.

"Her ancestors are all from good old Bavaria," Cage, 42, tells the German magazine Bunte about his mother, dancer Joy Vogelsang. (His father, literature professor August Coppola, is a brother of director Francis Ford Coppola.)

The World Trade Center star says he fell in love the first time he and wife Alice Kim Cage, 22, saw the castle. "I liked the architecture and the gigantic forest," he says, adding that he was looking for an "authentic, homey residence." (Their son, Kal-El, is 10 months.)

Schloss Neidstein sits on a hill with a stunning view of its 395 acres of forest, meadows and fields. The castle itself has 28 rooms, including 10 bedrooms and five bathrooms – 9,688 square feet in total.

The castle's previous owner, Alexander von Brand, 48, says the residence has been in his family since 1466 and he sold it reluctantly. "At the end, we only lived in the castle a few weeks each year," he tells Bunte. "Still, we tried to preserve our heritage and the center of our family."

He's pleased that Cage is the new owner: "While the one family loses its past, the other family attempts to regain its past – that's pure symmetry!"

Cage's real-estate agent, Sabine Gammel, tells the magazine the actor was gracious throughout the sales process. "He was extremely pleasant, courteous and obliging, even when he was surrounded by autograph hounds at a highway rest area."

Although the price of the castle was not disclosed, Cage is no stranger to big-ticket real estate: In May, he bought a private island in the Bahamas.