Ludwig's Castles - Part 2 - Neuschwanstein Castle

Neuschwanstein Castle was built by Ludwig in honour of Richard Wagner. It is a 19th-century Romanesque Revival palace on a rugged hill above the village of Hohenschwangau near Füssen in southwest Bavaria, Germany. It was never completed during Ludwig's lifetime; infact he ran out of money. However today it is Bavaria's top tourist attraction. The palace has appeared prominently in several movies and was the inspiration for Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle.

The setting of the castle is indeed gorgeous.

It is my intention to rebuild the old castle ruin of Hohenschwangau near the Pöllat Gorge in the authentic style of the old German knights' castles, and I must confess to you that I am looking forward very much to living there one day [...]; you know the revered guest I would like to accommodate there; the location is one of the most beautiful to be found, holy and unapproachable, a worthy temple for the divine friend who has brought salvation and true blessing to the world. It will also remind you of "Tannhäuser" (Singers' Hall with a view of the castle in the background), "Lohengrin'" (castle courtyard, open corridor, path to the chapel) [...].

– Ludwig II, Letter to Richard Wagner, May 1868

As with his other palaces, this one was beautifully decorated even if quite gaudy in some places. His obsession with swans continues..........there is a room with more than a 1000 swans on the walls and including in the shape of door knobs. He even had an artificial grotto attached to his study.
 
 

First glimpse of Neuschwanstein Castle.

A Glimpse of Hohenschwangau Castle - the 3rd of Ludwig's castles in the region.

Ludwig's Castles - Part 1 - Linderhof Palace

Thanks to Christina, I learned alot about Bavaria and in particular King Ludwig.

• King Ludwig was king of Bavaria from 1864 until shortly before his death.
• He was obsessed with King Louis XIV of France and did everything possible to emulate him.
• He was also obsessed with swans and in all his castles you find references and symbols of it.
• He never married and even though he built these huge castles, he did not like to be surrounded by people.
• I think he was gay.
• He was a devoted patron of the composer Richard Wagner.
• He was deposed on grounds of mental illness without any medical examination, and died a day later under mysterious circumstances.
• Ludwig is best known as an eccentric whose legacy is intertwined with the history of art and architecture, as he commissioned the construction of several extravagant fantasy castles (the most famous being Neuschwanstein).

Schloss Linderhof is the smallest of Ludwig's castles. It is near Oberammergau, quite close to Ettal.  It was inspired by The French Sun-King Louis XIV's Versailles. Linderhof, however is much smaller in size but equally beautiful. There is a lot of references to Louis XIV - the symbol of the sun which is found everywhere in the decoration of the rooms and which represents the notion of absolutism. Ludwig's bedroom is quite huge and has the best view. But unlike Louis XIV whose bedroom was also an audience chamber, Ludwig was a very private person and did not like to be surrounded by people.

Flora and puttos

Ludwig's muse - Louis XIV

The symbol of the sun

The gardens surrounding Linderhof Palace are considered one of the most beautiful creations of historicist garden design. The park combines formal elements of Baroque style or Italian Renaissance gardens with landscaped sections that are similar to the English garden. The palace is surrounded by formal gardens that are decorated with allegoric sculptures of the continents, the seasons and the elements.

The Neptune fountain

Amor with dolphins

The Moorish Kiosk is splendid but totally out of place in this setting. However it kind of ties in with Ludwig's obsessions.

The Venus Grotto is an artificial manmade grotto as an illustration of the First Act of Wagner's Tannhauser. Ludwig liked to be rowed over the lake in his golden swan-boat but at the same time he wanted his own blue grotto of Capri. Therefore 24 dynamos were installed which made it possible to illuminate the grotto in changing colours.

The swan boat

The artificial grotto which is illuminated in several colours.

The bust of Marie Antoinette of France

Beautiful gardens

Beautiful urns, each different.

Amor shooting an arrow

The temple of Venus

The 25m fountain is quite impressive.

By the shores of the Bodensee.........

Whilst driving through Bavaria on our way to Austria, we came across a beautiful lake in an extremely peaceful setting. It was the Bodensee also known as Lake Constance. It is a lake on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps and consists of three bodies of water: the Obersee ("upper lake"), the Untersee ("lower lake"), and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Seerhein.

The lake is situated in Germany, Switzerland and Austria near the Alps. Specifically, its shorelines lie in the German federal-states of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, the Austrian federal-state of Vorarlberg, and the Swiss cantons of Thurgau and St. Gallen. The Rhine flows into it from the south following the Austro-Swiss frontier.
(Source: Wikipedia)
 
 

Some facts:

• Lake Constance was first mentioned by the Roman geographer Pomponius Mela about AD 43.
• The freshwater lake sits at 395 m above sea level and is Central Europe's third largest, after Lake Balaton and Lake Geneva.
• It is 63 km long, and at its widest point, nearly 14 km.
• Lake Constance was formed by the Rhine Glacier during the ice age.
• The Lake Constance trout (Salmo trutta) was almost extinct in the 1980s due to pollution, but thanks to protective measures has made a significant return.
• The lake itself is an important drinking water source for southwestern Germany.