Visit Neuschwanstein Castle - The Ultimate Fairy-Tale Castle of Germany
Neuschwanstein Castle is a 19th-century historicist palace on a rugged hill above the village of Hohenschwangau near Füssen in southwest Bavaria, Germany. King Ludwig II of Bavaria commissioned the castle as a getaway and a tribute to Richard Wagner. Ludwig decided against using Bavarian public monies to build the palace and instead used his own fortune and a significant amount of borrowing. Although it started in 1869, the construction of the palace was never fully completed. The castle was intended as a private residence for the King until he died in 1886. Soon after his passing, it was made accessible to the public. The number of visitors to Neuschwanstein Castle has risen to about 61 million since then.
Neuschwanstein Castle is a global symbol of the era of Romanticism. The castle was the inspiration for Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle, and has appeared prominently in several movies such as Helmut Käutner's Ludwig II (1955) and Luchino Visconti's Ludwig (1972) (both biopics about the King); the musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), the spoof comedy Spaceballs and the war drama The Great Escape (1963). Neuschwanstein and Ludwig's Linderhof and Herrenchiemsee palaces were listed on the German tentative list for designation as UNESCO World Heritage Site.
