Schloss Neuschwanstein - Inspiration To The Sleeping Beauty Castle
Monday, April 15, 2013
We started our journey after the breakfast from Rothenberg o.d.T., a beautiful, charming, little Christmas village on the route of "Romantische Strasse" in the Bavarian Germany. Today we had to drive through this medieval trade route which still retained much of its medieval character. It was a bright sunny day and we were crossing the forgotten sections of colorful countryside, connecting walled towns and picturesque villages. On the way, we stopped our car in some of the medieval German villages after passing through the arched gateway, completed with guard towers. Inside, we saw gothic cathedrals, half-timbered fachwerk houses, beautiful historic hotels and often a medieval festival decorations and met the friendly people and had the lovely Franken foods. After a long drive through Dinkelsbuhl, Augsburg, Wildsteig, Halblech and Fussen, we reached our destination Schwangau in the afternoon. This was the village of two famous Royal Castles - The castles Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau of the King Ludwig II.
We first checked in to our Hotel, kept our luggage and refreshed ourselves a long drive. This family run Hotel was a nice, small and cozy with a splendid view. The interesting part which we liked was the view of both of the castles, visible from our balcony. It was easy to identify both the castles. The yellow one was Schloss Hohenschwangau and the white one was Schloss Neuschwanstein. We decided to visit the Schloss Hohenschwangau that day. We took a Horse cart and arrived after 40 minutes drive amidst the Alpine forest - centuries old yews and weeping beeches through the hilly road. This castle, altered by Maximilian II, from 1832 to 1836 was the happy nursery of the King Ludwig. The view of deep Alpsee Lake was awesome with its emerald water. After visiting the castle, we started walking downhill to reach the foothill where our car was parked. After reaching the hotel, we had nice dinner and went in to the dreams of 19th century !
28 July 2012
We woke up early and headed to the Ticket counter after a freshly prepared breakfast in the Hotel to avoid the rush of crowds to visit the Neuschwanstein Castle. German: Schloss Neuschwanstein, literary meaning "new swan stone", was a 19th century Romanesque Revival Palace on a rugged hill above the village of Schwangau in south-west Bavaria. The castle was constructed by Ludwig II, son of King Maximilian II of Bavaria. The location of the castle was extremely beautiful. It was between the Alpine foothills and overlooking the villages. The Neuschwanstein castle was the birth place or inspiration for the Disney Land Sleeping Beauty Castle. The Castle had given Ludwig a name known as "Fairy Tale King" and no other king was loved in Bavaria as he was in this part. Everything had a touch of Ludwig here!
We purchased the English Guide Ticket and were transported by a bus to the uphill near the castle. We first went to the Marien Brucke. It was originally a wooden bridge connecting two rocky hills and was renovated by King Ludwig II, during the building of Neuschwanstein, by the present cantilever construction made of iron. The view of the castle was enchanting from this bridge. All the tourists were busy to take snap as much as they could. Our English guided tour was started as per schedule, We entered each and every room of the castle and felt, as if, we were going through the pages of history about the story of a sad king!
World famous and proud King Ludwig's last building rose its towers and battlements into the blue sky. Inspired by Richard Wagner and German sagas, the castle was built from 1869 to 1886, but it never served as King's residence.
The castle till now was incomplete and received 60 million people annually. This was the irony as the King was a shy person and built this castle in the midst of the hills so that he could stay in recluse! The interior of the palace was much like a mansion. The largest room of the palace by area was the Hall of Singers, followed by Throne Hall.
Hall of Singers was one of the King's favorite projects. One interesting fact was that this Hall was never used for large banquets or musical performance. Ludwig built this Hall for salutation to Knights and medieval times. However, I liked the Throne Hall most. It was sumptuous church like hall with its massive, 4 meter high Chandelier which was set in the golden half dome above. The Throne itself was designed of gold and ivory, but never made. I got surprised to know that The King's new gothic style bedroom took 41/2 years to complete mainly due to wood decoration. The guide showed us that from the bedroom, The King could see the some parts of his own castle.
Let me share a very mysterious thing about the King Ludwig. The fairy tale king died in mysterious circumstances. On 13 June, 1886, Ludwig and his personal physician (who declared him as Insane) had gone for a walk near the Lake Starnberg near Castle Berg and never returned and on the same day their bodies were found at night. Some say that his enemies killed him, however, this remained a mystery!
10:00 P.M.
After dinner, I was standing in our hotel balcony. The village was telling me Good Night. The sprawling ranges of Alps were dark, however, I could see the dim lights of the Neuschwanstein castle far away like a distant dream ! Suddenly I could feel the musical opera of "Tristan und Isolde" of Wagner being played in the background - will you?
Auf Wiedersehen.
References: Schwangau Brochure and Wikipedia.
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