Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Mad Ludwig's Castle (Germany #16)

NEUSCHWANSTEIN--Nothing like this 19th-century Romanesque Revival palace, which inspired Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle, will ever be built again.    
King Ludwig II of Bavaria commissioned it as a retreat and in homage to his friend, composer Richard Wagner. But contrary to common belief, Ludwig (who was declared insane by his political enemies shortly before his death under highly suspicious circumstances in 1886) paid for the outrageously expensive palace out of his personal fortune and extensive borrowing, not with Bavarian public funds.
Neuschwanstein sits on a rugged cliff ridge above the secluded village of Hohenschwangau in southwest Bavaria, about a two-hour drive from Munich. At first sight against a background of snow-capped mountains, it is amazing, fabulous, dazzling. On my visit, the place is mobbed. Not surprising:  there are over a million visitors a year. Tickets must be applied for months in advance, so everyone with a ticket actually shows up, regardless of the weather.
It’s snowing as I stand in line in the little village at the foot of the mountain, first for pay toilets, then for the steep bus ride, not to, but toward the top. I’m wearing practically everything in my suitcase (two t-shirts, flannel shirt, light jacket, poncho) and it’s still not enough. After a prolonged wait and overcrowded bus ride, I walk the rest of the way briskly because if you’re late, you don’t get in. I’m herded through in 20 minutes.
Nevertheless, I wouldn’t have missed this for anything.
Designed as the romantic ideal of a knight's castle, Neuschwanstein is furnished with numerous towers, ornamental turrets, gables, balconies, pinnacles and sculptures. Ludwig’s bed is so ornate it took 400 carpenters 4 ½ years just to carve the top. Many rooms bear a border depicting the various operas written by Wagner, including a theater permanently featuring the set of one such play. A swan motif appears everywhere--in wood carved ceilings and walls and doors, in metal door handles shaped like swans, even in a giant ceramic swan sculpture encased in a glass box.
Construction began in 1868, when the foundation stone for the palace was laid, following the demolition of the ruins of twin medieval castles on the site. In 1884, Ludwig moved into the highly theatrical but still unfinished complex. Had it been completed, the palace would have had more than 200 interior rooms and halls. Only 14 were finished. Even so, it has secret passages, a stalactite cavern with an artificial waterfall (between the living room and study), a winter garden with a fountain sunk in the rock, and many private little nooks.
My all too brief tour ends in the large music hall, the last room completed before the king’s death.

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