Sitting atop a hill overlooking the city of Darmstadt in the Rhine Valley within the rugged Odenwald mountain range of Germany like something out of a dark fairy tale is the real Frankenstein Castle. The name “Frankenstein” itself comes from the Franks, which was an ancient Germanic tribe, and the German word for “stone,” which is “stein,” forming the name “Stone of the Franks.” The sprawling, gothic structure was originally built in 1250 by Lord Conrad II Reiz of Breuberg, who later changed his own name to Frankenstein and started the free imperial Barony of Frankenstein. Over the years it would be expanded and change hands several times before finally becoming a refuge and a hospital, before being abandoned and falling to ruin in the 18th century. Over its many centuries the castle has accrued various spooky stories and legends, imbuing it with strange and dark lore, and it has also said to have been the inspiration for Mary Shelley’s 1818 gothic masterpiece