International Castle Research Society

The International Castle Research Society (ICRS) was established in Aachen in 1986 as a not-for-profit organization following earlier initiatives by Bernhard Siepen, architect, who has been its president since 2000.

Early supporters were the long-standing Aachen member of parliament, Dr. Hans Stercken, and Consul Cornel Renfert, of the Franco-German Chamber of Commerce, Paris.

Whereas the earlier models were of French fortified keeps, or donjons, then Crusader castles and bazaars as well as medieval ships, for some time now ICRS has been working on creating models of palaces typical of the 9th to 12th centuries.

There are also plans for a model of the imperial Aachen palace of Charlemagne, dating from around AD 800, and of historic buildings in Jerusalem.

[citation needed] The president, team and ICRS consultants:[citation needed] Models created by ICRS based on historical sources, at 1/25 of natural size More than one million people in both in Europe and North America so far have visited ICRS exhibitions.