It’s a real life Disney castle!
I’ve been there several times! I used to live about a 4-hour drive away from that castle.
It is absolutely gorgeous! And not just the castle, but the whole region. Bavaria is one of my favorite places in the whole world, and I’ve traveled all over the globe. If I could pick any place to build my dream home and retire, Bavaria is very high on that list. King Ludwig II picked a perfect spot for his fairytale castle.
He wasn’t smart about how he built it, though. His country was going broke and rather than deal with his subjects, he just fucked off to the corner of Bavaria to make a fantasy castle based on the works of his favorite composer, Richard Wagner.
He was so hated by his people for funneling all his money into this castle instead of helping them to survive, that one day he “mysteriously” drowned in a tiny little stream out back behind the castle. Construction on the castle stopped immediately and they turned it into a tourist attraction to generate money for the kingdom. The economy rebounded and it’s been a tourist attraction ever since, so no one’s officially lived there (the royal family had a summer home next door) and it’s not 100% complete inside.
Still, it’s a gorgeous castle and I highly recommend checking it out if you’re in the area. The famous shot of the castle from the back/side is taken from a suspended foot bridge behind the castle. Definitely make the hike through the woods to see that view! The whole valley below the castle is beautiful to drive through as well.
Another interesting fact while we’re on the subject. All the American stereotypes of Germany (beer, bratwurst, lederhosen, yodeling, etc.) is actually Bavarian culture, not German culture. Germans outside of Bavaria get really insulted if you bring up these stereotypes with them.
Bavaria has a very rich and interesting culture. They wanted to split off from Germany and become their own country once upon a time, but then Hitler decided to make their capital, Munich, into his headquarters for the Third Reich. Then the whole place was bombed to hell during WWII.
After the war, when Germany had to pay to rebuild Europe, most of the money came from Bavaria, which was an extremely rich region at the time. So they were bombed back to the stone age AND broke. Bavaria had to settle as a region of Germany instead of becoming their own independently wealthy country.
After the war, when Germany had to pay to rebuild Europe, most of the money came from Bavaria, which was an extremely rich region at the time. So they were bombed back to the stone age AND broke. Bavaria had to settle as a region of Germany instead of becoming their own independently wealthy country.
Whoever told you that is most likely exactly the kind of nationalist Bavarian with a superiority complex that annoys the rest of us Germans.
The reparations of Germany was paid for mostly by East Germany, and we are talking up to 97-98 % of all reparations. So no way Bavarians paid most of it. Source (under the headline Wert der Entnahmen aus SBZ und DDR) is sadly only German book and Wikipedia, not in the English one.
And Bavaria profited from the separation of Germany, since a lot of companies in the now soviet controlled eastern sector went to Bavaria. For example Audi or Allianz. Which then of course helped during the rebuilding.
But that is just what annoyed me enough to write this comment. Otherwise I fully agree, there is a lot of nice stuff and friendly people in Bavaria.
Thanks for the info! I was told on a Munich tour once that Hitler gutted the finances and resources of Bavaria for WWII, then after the war ended, what was left went toward reparations. They claimed that Bavaria basically footed the bill for most of Germany, during and after the war, leaving them broke and dependent.
I guess my tour guide didn’t know what he was talking about.
Yeah I expected something like that. In my experience Tour guides are really great at telling a story and entertain us, that’s their job. But how true those stories are… =)
That’s a really interesting comment thanks! Him accidentally drowning in a dribble of water says a lot…
Yeah, his official physician pronounced him dead from accidental drowning. But it was only a couple feet of standing water, so… 🤷
I’ve been there a few times, it’s great! It also has a really cool artificial grotto I don’t ever see mentioned.
Wow that’s gorgeous! Did you have a good trip overall?
Yes, I went there several times as a kid when I lived in Germany. It’s probably been 35 years or so since the last visit! I have the most random memory of being in the car on one of the trips there holding a little gold robot tchotchke I got at some souvenir store while Huey Lewis’s “If This Is It” played on the radio. That song came out in 1983, so it might have been the first time I visited there, probably around 1985 or so.
Those are lovely memories thanks for sharing them
Maybe it’s my age (its definitely my age) but although I used to think Neuschwanstein was magical, now I just think of all the steps you must have to climb to get to anywhere in there.
Crazy thing is this was built in like the 1880s - my apartment building in Chicago is older than this castle. And the structure of the new castle was built out of brick, with stone cladding on the outside to give it the castle look.
They even dynamited actual medieval twin castle ruins that were on this site to make room for the new castle.
Cause it isn’t an actual castle. It’s just as much of a real castle as the Disney castle. It’s some rich dude’s attempt at larping as a medieval king. (Well, he was an actual king, just not a medieval one.)
There are tons of buildings like that all over Europe, like e.g. Cyfarthfa Castle or the Emichsburg.
It’s not finished on the inside.
Just like Disney castles!
That’s because the guy commissioning it ran out of money.
And drowned in a nearby lake after being declared insane and deposed from the throne.
He didn’t just drown in a lake. He went on a walk with his doctor, and they BOTH “drowned” in the lake.
Wasn’t the lake only a few inches deep?
