The view from the south. (Photo by Mark Yan.)

The ultimate fairy-tale castle, Neuschwanstein was also Ludwig's first castle. He planned it for the alpine region around Hohenschwangau, the area he loved most. He also envisaged it to be more magnificent than his father's castle of Hohenschwangau.

Inspiration

The first seeds of inspiration for the great castle came from a mini-Wagner festival that Ludwig ordered for the Munich Court Theatre in 1867. The festival was to include new productions of "Lohengrin" and "Tannhäuser", and Ludwig wished the sets to be totally authentic historically and artistically. To be sure of the accuracy of the production, he decided to undertake a journey to Wartburg Castle in Thuringia to study the actual location where "Tannhäuser" was supposed to take place, arriving there on May 31, 1867.

Wartburg Castle, Thuringia, central Germany. Neuschwanstein's inspiration.

While the young King was studying the magnificent 11th cent. castle (the restoration of which had been completed that year), he first thought of building his own medieval castle. In the Wartburg he saw a castle that symbolised everything he loved and was obsessed by at that time - mountains, legend connected to Wagner's operas, and the middle ages. It was a castle that held more history and legend than his beloved Hohenschwangau, and he was determined to build, if not a replica of the Wartburg, then a castle of his own surpassing this one in beauty.

Back to Castles

Next page