NEUSCHWANSTEIN Schlossverwaltung Neuschwanstein Neuschwansteinstr. 20 · 87645 Tel. (0 83 62) 93 98 80 · Fax (0 83 62) 9 39 88 19 [email protected] · www.neuschwanstein.de OPENING TIMES April – September: 9am – 6pm October – March: 10am – 4pm OPENING TIMES OF THE TICKET CENTRE April – September: 8am – 5pm INFORMATION October – March: 9am – 3pm Tel. (0 83 62) 93 08 30 · Fax (0 83 62) 9 30 83 20 www.ticket-center-.de TICKET RESERVATION Entrance tickets are obtainable at the ticket centre in the village of Hohenschwangau below the . Tickets can be booked in advance for an additional charge. The time can only be changed or the ticket cancelled up to two hours before the start of the tour The Singers’ Hall on the fourth floor of the castle Photo of King Ludwig II (left); Mural of »St. George killing the (also by phone). dragon« from the Throne Hall (right); Majolica swan (below) GUIDED TOURS

NEUSCHWANSTEIN CASTLE Guided tours of the palace (ca. 35 min.) in German or English or with an audioguide in eleven languages. Special tours on request Neuschwanstein Castle was commenced by the Bavarian One of the most famous in , the , had ᵼ Special tours for wheelchair and wheeled Zimmer users on King Ludwig II in 1869 and never completed. He saw it as been renovated and refurnished in 1867 and became a direct Wednesdays; registration required. Disabled toilet near the castle a monument to medieval culture and kingship, which he model for Neuschwanstein. In the 19th century, building in histori- TRANSPORTATION revered and wanted to imitate. Built and furnished in cal styles meant »perfecting« them, also with the help of modern Train to Füssen · Bus (RVA) to »Hohenschwangau« medieval styles but equipped with what at the time was technology and historical studies. As a thorough-going idealist, Horse-drawn carriages to just below the castle Chargeable parking places in Hohenschwangau the latest technology, it is the most famous work of his- Ludwig II clung to an already completely outdated belief in such toricism and the embodiment of German idealism. perfection. Information on all the property administered by the Palace Department:

FORMATIVE INFLUENCES AND MODELS BUILDING HISTORY Bayerische Verwaltung der The father of Ludwig II, Maximilian II, acquired the nearby Ludwig II became king in 1864. Two years later he was forced staatlichen Schlösser, Gärten und Seen , seat of the knights of Schwan- to accept the defeat and domination of his country by Prussia. Postfach 20 20 63 · 80020 München Tel. (0 89) 17 90 80 · Fax (0 89) 17 90 81 90 gau in the , and rebuilt it from 1832 in the No longer a sovereign ruler, he was unable to cope with the

[email protected] · www.schloesser.bayern.de Achim Bunz 2/2008 Cover picture: Gothic style. Here Ludwig, who was born in 1845, de- role of a constitutional monarch. He created his own alternative veloped a passion for the Middle Ages. He learned much world, in which as the reigning king of he could live like

Augsburg ➞ about the legends and history of the period from the a king of the Middle Ages or the age of absolutism. A96

Frankfurt ➞ A7 München murals and through avid reading. From 1861 he was This is the idea behind his castles. On a ridge in a magnificent Würzburg decisively influenced by his encounter with the music setting high above the Pollät Gorge with the mountains as a back- Landsberg dramas of , who heightened the drop he built his »New Castle« over the remains of two small B 12 Ammersee effect of the medieval sagas with incredibly medieval castles familiar to him since his childhood (Vorder- B 17 powerful music. Ludwig first saw »« and Hinter-Hohenschwangau). Ludwig II visited the Wart- Markt Starnberger A96 Oberdorf See and »Tannhäuser«. These were followed by burg in 1867 and had his architects make drawings of A95 »Tristan und Isolde« and »Der Ring des Nibe- the ornamentation. The ideal designs were produced Kempten B 16

lungen«, and Wagner’s adaptation of the by a scene painter from the court opera A7 ➞ B 17 B 23 Garmisch saga of the Grail King (»«), house and incorporated motifs not only from the Wart- Nesselwang with whom Ludwig II identified in his later years burg, in particular the Palas and building ornamenta- Neuschwanstein ➞ Castle Bodensee Hohen- and with whom he was identified by Wagner. tion, but also from stage sets for »Lohengrin« and Pfronten Füssen schwangau Reutte/Tirol Neuschwanstein Castle

The walls of the Throne Hall glorify canonized kings Palace kitchen (top left); with coloured lighting (bottom and their deeds. left); Study (right); Jewellery casket (below) NEUSCHWANSTEIN CASTLE

»Tannhäuser«. Ludwig II had written in a letter to Richard memorative room, the Throne Hall, was only added in 1881, Wagner in 1868 that his »New Castle« would contain when in his later years Ludwig II also wanted a version of the »reminders« of these works. Construction commenced legendary Grail Hall corresponding to the description of medi- in September 1869, and the Gateway Building was com- eval poets, in order to glorify Christian kingship. This room is pleted in 1873. This was where Ludwig II first lived, who however also a reference to his own dynasty. The room pro- was destined never to see his »New Castle« without gramme, the most comprehensive and complicated of the scaffolding. In 1884 his rooms in the Palas were ready 19th century, was designed by Ludwig II himself, who was well for occupation. A simplified version of the southern part read and interested in many different areas. For structural rea- of the building, the »Bower« was only completed in sons it had a steel construction like a modern functional building, 1891, and the with the chapel was never built. which was encased in plaster. Each of the adjacent residential rooms is dedicated to a saga. From 1880 a »cabinet« was ROOMS AND IDEALS turned into a small artificial grotto, based on the Venus grotto The main rooms of Neuschwanstein are decorated pri- in »Tannhäuser« with coloured electric lighting and a real waterfall. marily with murals of scenes from the Germanic and Nordic sagas on which Richard Wagner had based »NEUSCHWANSTEIN« his works. The programme was designed by the art Although heavily in debt, Ludwig II always wanted to go on and literary historian Hyazinth Holland. From the building. When the banks threatened to seize his prop- outset Ludwig II wanted his »New Castle« to erty, the government had him certified insane and have a larger and more magnificent ver- interned him in Berg Palace. Here, on 13 June 1886, sion of the Wartburg’s »Singers’ Hall« as a he died in . His »New Castle«, which monument to the chivalric culture of the he now thought of not as the Wartburg but as the Grail Middle Ages. The final result was a combin- Castle, and which no outsider was ever allowed to ation of the motifs from two Wartburg halls, enter, was opened to the public from 1 August 1886. the »Singers’ Hall« and the »Festival Hall«, It was only named Neuschwanstein after his death which however were not intended for perform- and is one of the best-known and most frequently ances or even festivals. The other com- visited and photographed buildings in the world. Bayerische Schlösserverwaltung