Crazy King Ludwig's Castles October 4, 2001
Talk about someone who lived in
resplendent opulence, someone who built castles, and then decided he needed more castles, someone who
spent money WAY too fast, someone who died an untimely and suspicious death -- then you're probably talking about crazy King Ludwig II.
This is a story so
well known and so popular in Bayern (aka Bavaria) that it's been made into a musical!
In 1800 Napoleon allied with the Munich elector, Max IV Joseph, and founded the Kingdom of Bayern, ending 1000 years of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. As the Wittelsbach family had been the most powerful family in Bayern since the 12th century, their patriarch became King. Three kings later in 1864, Ludwig II (the II is pronounced Tz-veye) ascended to the throne at the age of 18. Ludwig was a strange fellow, a bizarrely shy recluse who never married and hated company, avoiding even his own servants. He'd sleep during the day and at night he'd read, listen to music or wander around his fantasy castles. Ludwig II dreamt of palaces like Versailles and fairy tale castles. And since he could, he built them. He already owned two wonderful family estates in Munich -- the huge Residenz palace in town and the elegant Nymphenburg, set in a parkland in what was then the suburbs -- as well as castles on the Starnberger See and in Hohenswangau near the Alps. But apparently none of these were to his liking.
Ludwig in his short 20-year reign
undertook the building of 3 new castles, only one of which was completed.
These castles ate up Ludwig's own
fortune, bankrupted the government, and likely resulted in Ludwig's death / murder.
No one yet knows the details, but Ludwig and his psychiatrist were both mysteriously found drowned in 2 feet
of water. (Really the only mystery is: was he shot, or was he
strangled, or...) After Ludwig II's death,his castles were almost immediately
opened to the public to start paying off his debts.
All
the castles are easy
day-trips from Munich, and today they are among Bavaria's most popular tourist attractions.
Schloss (Castle)
Linderhof on a hill near the
German Alps, is a rather small castle and seems quite livable in its way. The
golden statues above reflect nicely in the pond seen here at the right.
The castle interior is "over-the-top" ornate, as are all of Ludwig II's
castles, but its size is manageable. This castle already belonged to the family,
so Ludwig II just renovated it. He lived here during most of his
reign. A short walk uphill there's an artificial grotto, complete with stalactites
and stalagmites, a little lake, a heating system to keep the place warm, and a stage and. Ludwig II built the grotto to listen to
Robert Wagner's operas; he'd drift around
the lake in his ornate covered gondola, a blanket on his knees, in total reverie.
Another Schloss feature: since
Ludwig II wanted to be totally alone, the dining room table was designed to be
set from below in the servants' quarters. It was then raised through a
trapdoor. (The elves in J.K. Rowling's Hogworts do it the same way.)
Ludwig's second castle is Schloss Neuschwanstein. It's just down the road as the crow flies from Schloss Linderhof, but actually requires a drive through Austria to get there. The exterior of this wonderful castle is the inspiration for Walt Disney's Fantasyland castle.
Unfortunately,
my photo doesn't do justice to picturesque Schloss Neuschwanstein. The best photos are from a
totally different angle, but we didn't have time to climb the mountain and get that picture;
instead we just made our way up a rather steep hill to get to this
one. Some of the postcard photos are incredibly beautiful, taken at sunrise or with newly fallen
snow caught in the tree limbs, or through a white misty fog with mountains in
the background.
More people visit Neuschwanstein than any other place in Germany. As we didn't get there until 11 o'clock, our wait for the castle tour was 2+ hours; fortunately lunch on a veranda in town is a nice diversion. Getting up to the castle takes about 30 minutes, and it's quite a hike. Indeed, the available-for-hire horsedrawn carriages seemed like a missed opportunity as we huffed and puffed our way up the steep paved trail to the top. Still, we encountered some young kids, seniors, and even someone pushing a wheel chair on the way up. I was truly amazed!
Happily, Neuschwanstein offers tours in English. All the castle's rooms are fantastically overdone: magnificent chandeliers, gilded and regal furnishings, huge mirrors, wonderful decorations -- totally extravagant. Within hiking distance, there's another Wittelsbach family castle, also available for a tour. It's older and much more homey with richly carved and painted wooden interiors. Obviously not to Ludwig II's taste.
The third of Ludwig's castles is Schloss
Herrencheimsee
on a lovely tree-covered
island in a large lake near Salzburg, Austria. The well-run ferry 
system,
with sufficient capacity for even the August crowds, got us there in 15 minutes.
The formal palace grounds are
bedecked with extravagant, splendid fountains. The details are
light-hearted, whimsical -- like these spitting turtles, lizards and monsters on the
left.
Ludwig II idealized the French Kings (I
don't imagine this helped his standing with his German advisors), especially
Louis XIV, the "Sun King" and built Schloss Herrencheimsee to
look like Versailles, with some rooms being exact replicas except larger and
others decorated similarly but even more lavishly. Royal reds and blues,
golden everything, huge mirrors, and crystal chandeliers predominate. This is the least complete of Ludwig's
palaces, with large unfinished sections in waiting. When cash ran out in
1885, only the central portion of this large castle had been
decorated.
Ludwig II was a dreamy romantic: he loved operatic music and enjoyed lavish, brilliant visions; he built wonderful extravagant, fantasy worlds. I expect he'd be rather pleased with the place he, and his castles, have in the hearts of the Bavarian people today.