Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany

Neuschwanstein Castle is a nineteenth-century Romanesque Revival palace on a rugged hill higher than the village of Hohenschwangau close to Füssen in southwest province, Germany. The palace was commissioned by Ludwig II of Bavaria as a retreat and as a respect to Richard Wagner. Ludwig paid for the palace out of his personal fortune and by means of in depth borrowing, rather than Bavarian public funds.

The palace was intended as a personal refuge for the reclusive king, but it was opened to the paying public instantly when his death in 1886. Since then more than sixty one million folks have visited Neuschwanstein Castle. More than one.3 million folks visit annually, with as many as 6,000 per day in the summer. The palace has appeared prominently in many movies such as Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and therefore the nice Escape and is the inspiration for Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle and later, similar structures.

Location

The municipality of Schwangau lies at an elevation of 800 m (2,620 ft) at the south west border of the German state of Bavaria. Its surroundings are characterised by the transition between the Alpine foothills within the south (toward the near  Austrian border) and a craggy landscape in the north that seems flat by comparison.

In the Middle Ages, three castles unnoted the villages. One was called Schwanstein Castle. In 1832, Ludwig's father King Maximilian II of Bavaria bought its ruins to replace them with the comfy neo-Gothic palace called Hohenschwangau Castle. Finished in 1837, the palace became his family's summer residence, and his elder son Ludwig (born 1845) spent a large a part of his childhood here.

Vorderhohenschwangau Castle and Hinterhohenschwangau Castle sat on a rugged hill commanding Schwanstein Castle, two near  lakes (Alpsee and Schwansee), and the village. In the nineteenth century only ruins remained of the dual medieval castles, but those of Hinterhohenschwangau served as a lookout spot familiar as Sylphenturm.