Dreams Do Come True

Once upon a time in the far away land of Bavaria lived a prince. His name was Ludwig, and he spent his summers at the rebuilt version of the old Schwanstein castle which came to be known as Hohenschwangau. Hohenschwangau became his favorite residence after the death of his father, Maximilian II. He called it a "paradise on earth" and stated that it was a place where he could "live out his ideals and thus find happiness." As his reign progressed, Ludwig developed almost a passion for building, of which it was his right as sovereign of Bavaria. After a visit to Wartburg Castle, he was inspired to build a romantic castle of his own. He chose the location of two old castles because of its strategic importance. The ruins of the castles were demolished, and after some blasting with dynamite, there was a big enough and level enough area to build. There was no landscape gardening because as you can see in the following pictures, Ludwig "set his castle, like a precious stone in a beautiful mounting, into a magnificent natural cliff setting." He "placed great importance on creating harmony between the natural landscape and the building itself." Plans were drawn up and the foundation stone for this new castle was laid so the building of this massive structure could begin in 1869 (I was so excited that I took this shot from the highway in the car several miles away---though the picture's not the greatest, you can get an idea of the size of Ludwig's dream:

This next picture only shows part of this beauty, but records state that in a two-year period alone, the following material was needed for construction: "465 tons of Salzburg marble, 4,550 tons of sandstone, 400,000 bricks, 3,600 cubic meters of sand, 600 tons of cement, 50 tons of hard coal and 2,050 cubic meters of wooden scaffolding." The exterior shell of the main builidng took 11 years to build, and in January of 1880, the framework for the roof was placed on the building. The next year the work on the interior of the 4th and 5th floors was begun.

Next is a view from a parking lot in the village of Schwangau. The backdrop for the castle is jagged mountain peaks, trees, waterfalls, and a lake.

Right after the foundation stone was laid, work on the gatehouse (below) was begun. Ludwig had been watching construction from Hohenschwangau with a telescope. He had an apartment built in the gatehouse so he could be on-site during the construction. After this was completed, work on the actual castle began in 1873. (Sorry, we were looking right into the sun on this one.)

This wonder has no shortage of towers and windows (Ludwig had window panes built into the stone so the openings could have glass, but appear to be totally medieval):

Turrets and architectural detail:

...arches and amazing stone masonry:

We were able to tour what is completed on the inside, but sadly no picture-taking is allowed and sadly the castle was never totally finished due to Ludwig's untimely, mysterious death, only two days after being declared insane. There were some remarkable things to see and hear about, like:

• Murals and paintings covering a large part of the walls. Many of them depict scenes from legends of the time and most of them from subjects of Wagner's musical work.
• Gorgeous wood carving and lots of it. I've seen some beautiful work, but the scale and intricacy here is phenomenal.
• Running water--because there was a spring located 600 feet above the castle, it was possible to bring water to all the floors using some additional pumps. There was hot water available for the kitchen and the bath (which never got finished).
• There was a central heating system for the entire main castle.
• The mosaic floor in the throne room is beautiful and contains over a million tiles.
• The chandelier in the throne room weighs over 2,000 pounds, and all chandeliers in the castle could/can be lowered for cleaning and to replace the candles.
• In order to complete the work that was done on the castle and furnish it according to the king's desire, the budget during the king's last three years amounted to 3.7 million marks (budget for that time frame was 600,000 marks).
• The kitchen was incredibly large, had maple cutting blocks, a roasting spit, plate warming ovens, baking ovens, and a barbeque grill. There was plumbing bringing a hot water spigot to the stove tops to fill the large copper pots (much like you see today in very upscale kitchens). There was also a huge pantry and an office for the chef in adjoining rooms. Oh, there was a separate room for dishwashing (probably about the size of my kitchen in Texas). Can I just say incredible?
• Ludwig favored medieval style architecture, but loved modern convenience. We saw his telephone, one of the first in Germany. The guide joked that the problem was he couldn't call anyone because no one else had a phone!
• One whole floor was not completed because of Ludwig's early death. It was to house the guest quarters. The servants quarters on the second level were very nice. I got a sense that Ludwig valued those people who worked for him.
  

Not only are the views on the inside remarkable. This is what can still be seen from ground level. Can you imagine the views from the 5th floor?!

Today the castle can be accessed by visitors from the village, Schwangau, down below. It's a pretty steep little climb:

You can take a bus or ride in a nice horse-drawn carriage:

Or....you can hoof it! Seeing as how, my husband is missing his daily workouts and racquetball games (and is very fiscally conservative), he insisted we climb it on our own. My legs still ache, but it was a great walk.

Neuschwanstein will now mean more to me than just putting together a 1,000-piece puzzle! Though overcast and gloomy, it was an amazing day, a dream come true for me and for DJ who had been able to tour Hohenschwangau before, but not Neuschwanstein.

And so you see, fairytales are real and dreams do come true, and I got to spend a wonderful weekend with my prince charming!