Neuschwanstein Castle

Address

Neuschwansteinstraße 20, 87645 Schwangau, Germany

GPS

47.5585105, 10.7499868

Address

Neuschwansteinstraße 20, 87645 Schwangau, Germany

GPS

47.5585105, 10.7499868

Price

$40

Price per

person

Duration

2 hours

How to get there

By car or coach
Take the A7 motorway (direction Ulm-Kempten-Füssen) until the end. From Füssen first follow the road B17 to Schwangau, then the signs to Hohenschwangau
or
take the A7 motorway until the exit Kempten and then the road B12 to Marktoberdorf. Follow the road B16 to Roßhaupten – OAL I to Buching – and then take the road B17 to Schwangau and Hohenschwangau.

By public transport

Take the train (www.bahn.com) to Füssen, then the bus to Neuschwanstein (stop “Hohenschwangau Neuschwanstein Castles, Schwangau”).

Most of organized tours are coming from Munich.

Special notice

Entrance tickets for Neuschwanstein Castle can only be bought at the Ticket Center Hohenschwangau!

Price range

$$

Bavarian King Ludwig II began building Neuschwanstein Castle in 1869, but he died before it was finished. He admired mediaeval society and kingship and considered this structure as a symbol of such things. It is the most well-known work of historicism and stands as a symbol of German idealism, having been constructed in a mediaeval style and provided with cutting-edge amenities for its day.
The castle from the fairy tale has very mundane and somewhat tragic story behind it.

Maximilian II, Ludwig II’s father, purchased the adjacent Hohenschwangau Castle, the mediaeval stronghold of the knights of Schwangau, and began a Gothic reconstruction project in 1832. There, Ludwig, a young man born in 1845, discovered the Middle Ages and fell in love with it. The murals and his studies taught him a great deal about the myths and history of the time.

The beginning

Skip-the-Line Neuschwanstein Castle Half-Day Tour from MunichFrom 1861 on, he was profoundly impacted by his exposure to Richard Wagner’s music dramas, which amplified the impact of the mediaeval sagas through extraordinarily potent music. ‘Lohengrin’ and ‘Tannhäuser’ were the first operas that Ludwig ever saw. Wagner’s depiction of the legend of the Grail King Parzival (‘Parsifal’), with whom Ludwig II connected in his final years and with whom Wagner identified him, followed ‘Tristan und Isolde’ and ‘Der Ring des Nibelungen’.

The Wartburg, one of Germany’s most recognizable castles, served as inspiration for Neuschwanstein Castle after it was repaired and refurnished in 1867. Constructing in historical styles in the nineteenth century meant “perfecting” them with the aid of cutting-edge technology and scholarly research. As a true idealist, Ludwig II adhered to a concept of perfection that had long since passed its prime.

The construction

In 1864, Ludwig II was crowned king. Two years later, he had no choice but to admit that Prussia had defeated and dominated his country. Being a constitutional monarch was too much for him to handle after having been a sovereign king. He invented a parallel universe in which he, as king of Bavaria, might rule with the absolute power of a king from the Middle Ages or the Baroque period. His castles are based on this concept.

From Munich Privat half day tour to Neuschwanstein CastleOver the ruins of two minor mediaeval castles (‘Vorder’- and ‘Hinter’-Hohenschwangau) he had known since infancy, he constructed his ‘New Castle’ on a ridge in a magnificent setting high above the Pollät Gorge with the mountains as a backdrop. In 1867, King Ludwig I had his architect take detailed measurements and sketches of the Wartburg’s decorations during a visit.

Inspired by the Wartburg, in particular the Palas and building ornamentation, as well as the stage settings for “Lohengrin” and “Tannhäuser,” a scene painter from the Munich court opera company created the ideal designs. In a letter to Richard Wagner dated 1868, Ludwig II mentioned including “reminders” of such works in his “New Castle” – Neuschwanstein Castle.

The Gateway Building was finished in 1873, after construction had begun in September 1869. It was here that Ludwig II, doomed to never again see his “New Castle” free of construction equipment, made his first home. His Palas hotel suite was completed and ready for occupancy in 1884. It wasn’t until 1891 that construction was finally finished on the “Bower,” a scaled-down version of the southern section of the edifice; the keep and chapel were never constructed.

The design

The main rooms of Neuschwanstein Castle are decorated primarily with murals of scenes from the Germanic and Nordic sagas on which Richard Wagner had based his works. The programme was designed by the art and literary historian Hyazinth Holland.

Neuschwanstein Castle, Ettal Abbey and Oberammergau Private Tour from MunichFrom the outset Ludwig II wanted his ‘New Castle’ to have a larger and more magnificent version of the Wartburg’s ‘Singers’ Hall’ as a monument to the chivalric culture of the Middle Ages. The final result was a combination of the motifs from two Wartburg halls, the ‘Singers’ Hall’ and the ‘Festival Hall’, which however were not intended for performances or even festivals.

The other commemorative room, the Throne Hall, was only added in 1881, when in his later years Ludwig II also wanted a version of the legendary Grail Hall corresponding to the description of medieval poets, in order to glorify Christian kingship.

This room is however also a reference to his own dynasty. The room programme, the most comprehensive and complicated of the 19th century, was designed by Ludwig II himself, who was well read and interested in many different areas. For structural reasons it had a steel construction like a modern functional building, which was encased in plaster.

Each of the adjacent residential rooms is dedicated to a saga. From 1880 a ‘cabinet’ was turned into a small artificial grotto, based on the Venus grotto in ‘Tannhäuser’ with colored electric lighting and a real waterfall.

Neuschwanstein Castle as an inspiration

Disney’s `Sleeping Beauty`s Castle was inspired by the Neuschwanstein Castle, and the same goes for castle from `Cinderella`. Specific design of the castle with turrets and with the backdrop of mountains and forests, makes it ideal for a fairy tale setting. This was one of the main reasons that nowadays thousands of tourists are flocking to the castle to visit.

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