Both of these palaces were designed by King Ludwig II of Bavaria. His life is very interesting. These are some things I learned about him... (These facts helped me understand what I was viewing. Pretty crazy stuff!)
King Ludwig II literally and imaginatively lived in a fantasy world. He became king at age 18 or 19. Due to wars, his country of Bavaria eventually became part of the German Empire. He didn't like political affairs, and he was an introvert. He withdrew himself from the public and liked to be alone most of the time. He would even have his servants hoist a table up to him from the kitchen (downstairs) to his bedroom (upstairs) with his dinner on it so he didn't have to interact with them. (He ate all alone.) His power as king was diminishing so he kept building castles and palaces (extremely expensive and very ostentatious) to show his wealth and status. The problem was, he was using all of the peoples money to feed his appetite for extravagance. The country was running out of money- it was being poured into Ludwig's fantasy palaces and castles. Finally, he was declared "insane" and unfit to be king. Three days after this happened, he was found by a lake near Neuschwanstein castle with his doctor. Both were dead. Nobody knows what happened to this day... it's a mystery!
Other facts... he never married. Many people thought and still believe today that he was gay. (He was a great designer, after all.) He was odd around women and people in general. He loved to read. He loved operas, legends, and myths about heroes and knights. He longed to live in what he thought were the "glory days" of the past. He loved the composer, Wagner's music and would have operas and plays by Wagner performed for him (and he would be the ONLY member in the audience). Weird!
When I first read about him, I felt sorry for him. Poor guy! Declared insane for building castles! He was very shy, and probably just misunderstood, right?... But then I toured the Neuschwanstein Castle and Linderhoff Palace... And now I believe that he totally was insane! Don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVED the castle and palace! I would tour them again in a heartbeat. I would have loved to live there too! They're beautiful! But... he wanted all of these places for him and only him. No joke. He told his family that when he died he wanted everything blown up. (Crazy. And luckily that didn't happen. Instead just a few weeks after he died his family turned his castles/palaces into museums. The public was paying to get in! They were in a lot of debt after all from Ludwig's crazy expenses.)
He had the following castles: Hohenschwangau Castle, Neuschwanstein Castle, Linderhoff Palace, Herrenchiemsee (which we will tour tomorrow) and Munich Residenz Palace. Isn't that enough?! But no... he had yet another palace he wanted to start building! Falkenstein ("Falcon Rock") Castle was in the works, but never actually got started. AND he had two more castles that never got beyond the initial plans. I don't think he would have ever been satisfied. Still, he is known all over the world and his fame lives on. Here are some of the pictures I took today (we were not allowed to take photos inside)...
Neuschwanstein Castle is meant to look like a medieval castle from the dark ages. As we toured this castle there were beautiful, elaborate paintings in every room. Most of the paintings told stories and myths- some from Bavarian legends. The swan can be found all over the castle. This, he said, was the animal he most identified with. The legend of the Swan King is painted in one of his rooms. Neuschwanstein was his "fantasy" palace. It was where he could live in the past and be a glorified king and knight. This castle was never actually finished, though, they stopped building it when he died. But it is simply amazing as is!
Linderhoff Palace was the only castle/palace designed by him that was actually completed. He would live there for about 3 weeks every month. He dedicated this palace to Louis XIV of France (the "Sun King"). There are pictures all over of important French people, and Louis XIV is found in almost every room! He loved France and the Palace Versailles. He admired King Louis XIV from the past because back in his time Louis XIV held all the power in France (something Ludwig II longed for, but couldn't have). This palace was decorated in the baroque/rococo style. Baroque is very "over-the top" with flying angels all over the place and nearly every inch of every room is decorated. The walls were painted with pure gold! (The tour guide said it took a LONG time to paint with pure gold.) He has ostentatious gifts and ornamentation in every room. His favorite color was blue, so there is a lot of blue accents in the rooms. The interior and exterior of this palace, though, is pretty magnificent. It was his little piece of France. The tour guide pointed out to us that there was an embroidery of the Bavarian crest above Ludwig's bed. The embroidery was stitched in pure gold and took 4 years to finish because 100 stitches of gold only covered about a square centimeter. She said that Ludwig was very particular with what he wanted, and he didn't care how long it took.
After touring the interior, we toured the exterior. The gardens are lovely. Ludwig had special buildings outside the gardens. There were several but we visited two. One was the "Venus Grotto" where he would listen to operas (again, he would be the only guest). The grotto is built like a cave. It had a heating system so he could go there in the winter. He would sit in a little swan boat in the water and even the water could be heated to 95 degrees!
We also toured his oriental place (can't remember what it's called). It looks like a Moroccan-style home and he would make his servants dress like they were from the Orient just to play the part.
After visiting the palace we ate dinner in Oberammergau, a quaint little town! I absolutely loved this day- it was very interesting and SO fun to tour the castle and palace! They were really exceptional buildings.
Buildings and homes throughout Oberammergau have paintings on the exterior...
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