Travelogue : The Castle of Neuschwanstein

On this Easter weekend along with some of my friends in Munich, I had gone to the Castles of Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau. The weather was not very sunny though, it was the regular grey day, with brief patches of sunshine now and then. We took a RegionalBahn from München Hbf, and the tourist crowd in the train set the right momentum from the word go.

Both the castles of Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau are located in close proximity to each other in the German village of Schwangau near the town of Füssen, in southwestern Bavaria, very close to the border with Austria. This region has a large number of Swans and hence the architecture of the castles, the legends of the past, emblems etc are heavily influenced by this bird.

The Neuschwanstein castle was constructed by King Ludwig II of Bavaria. It was named after the Swan Knight, Lohengrin, of Wagner's opera, and was designed by Christian Jank. The interior tapestries of the castle and wall paintings depict scenes from the operas of Richard Wagner, who was a close friend of the king. Ludwig II had a large number of hobbies during his youth, art and architecture were one of them and had made several friends in the artistic circles. The castle sits at the top of a hill, some 200 to 300 feet above the village. It is heated by a forced air, coal fired furnace in the basement. The bed in the King's bedroom features ornate carving that woodcarvers worked on for 3 years. The castle is fed with fresh water supply that is situated at a much higher altitude. It took about 17 years to build this castle and unfortunately the king lived there for about only 170 days, as he died an abrupt and mysterious death at the Starnberg See on the outskirts of München. Many of the interior rooms remain undecorated to this date; only 14 rooms were finished before Ludwig's death. The nearby Marienbrücke (Marie's Bridge), named after Marie of Prussia, provides a beautiful side view of Neuschwanstein.

This castle is claimed to be the inspiration for the Walt-Disney logo. This castle also featured in the Hollywood adaptation (starring Clint Eastwood) of the Alistair McLean´s novel "Where Eagles Dare".

Schloss Hohenschwangau (Castle of the High Swan County) was the childhood residence of King Ludwig II and was built by his father, King Maximilian II of Bavaria. Hohenschwangau was the official summer and hunting residence of Maximilian, his wife Marie of Prussia and their two sons.

for more information and photos check out

http://www.neuschwanstein.de/english/index.htm