Neuschwanstein Castle - Sightseeing & Information

Neuschwanstein Castle. Among the snow-capped peaks of the Bavarian Alps stands a fantasy come true, a fairy-tale castle that gives the impression of a theatrical scenery. It was Neuschwanstein who raised his toy towers and galleries over the wooded hills near the city of Füssen near the Austrian border.

It gives the impression of a theatrical scenery, and in part it is, because it was created under the active leadership of the Munich theater artist Christian Jank. At the same time, the castle has very impressive dimensions, and it was built for seventeen years (in 1869 - 1886).

Building this castle, King Ludwig II of Bavaria strove to embody his ideas of romance in its architecture. Ludwig grew up in the nearby Hohenschwangau Castle. This building, stylized as a medieval fortress, was built by his father Maximilian II. Ludwig was an ardent admirer of Germanic mythology and, apparently, identified himself with the swan knight Lohengrin.

After attending the premiere of the opera of the same name by Richard Wagner in 1858, he was overjoyed. When, three years later, at the age of eighteen, Ludwig inherited the royal throne, one of his first acts of state was to invite the composer to Munich. Now, possessing money and power, he became a patron of Wagner, paid all debts for the composer and promised to establish a festival for the performance of Wagner's works. In his operas, Wagner brought the world of German legends and tales onto the stage on a large scale, trying to captivate the audience with the drama of the eternal confrontation between Good and Evil.

Ludwig, meanwhile, ordered the construction of a fairytale castle to begin, which in all respects would correspond to the ideals of the ancient Germanic knighthood. This, as well as his other decisions, more and more inclined those around him to think that the king was damaged in reason and, as a ruler, was not able to see things soundly. When Ludwig was still young, Bismarck publicly announced that he was quite sane, although even then many strangeness of his behavior, his manner of fancy dressing, his whole lifestyle in general, he, for example, sometimes slept all day, and sometimes invited to for lunch ... the spirit of Louis XIV.

But at the end of his life, his madness was quite obvious and no one doubted it. On June 9, 1886, a state commission arrived at Hohenschwangau to declare the king incapacitated. Three days later, King Ludwig II set off on his last trip from Neuschwanstein to Berg Castle. On June 13, he died in Lake Starnbergsee under unexplained circumstances.

The interior decoration of Neuschwanstein Castle is a mixture of various architectural and artistic styles, a combination of Moorish, Gothic and Baroque elements: here there are stalactite columns, a throne room in the decadent-Byzantine spirit, and a singing hall with exquisite lighting, intended for staging Wagnerian operas.

At the same time, the entire building was equipped with the most advanced heating system for that time, a plumbing with cold and hot water was functioning in the kitchen. Neuschwanstein Palace was erected in 1869 - 1886 on a steep cliff, high above the Alpsee lake and the falling waters of the Pellata Gorge. The plans and drawings were developed by Eduard Riedel, decorator Christian Jank and Georg Dolman.

More information You can find at the official site of Neuschwanstein Castle.