Neuschwanstein und Hohenschwangau - The Castles of Ludwig II
Neuschwanstein Castle
The foundation stone was laid by King Ludwig II of Bavaria on 5th September 1869. The building was intended as a medieval knight's castle in the 12th/13th-century style. The outer façade of the gateway was completed in 1873. The main building and the adjoining buildings were faced with Schwangau marble from the quarry at Schwansee (Swan Lake). It was modelled largely on the Wartburg in Thuringia. The castle was to consist of five buildings: the gatehouse, the Knight's Building, the Bower (women's apartments), the King's Building (the main residential tract) and the keep. The original construction work
lasted 17 years and had to be discontinued because of Ludwig's early death.
By then, of the rooms in the main residential tract only the ground floor (kitchen and adjacent rooms), the third storey (the king's apartments and the Throne Room) and the fourth floor (Singers' Hall) had been completed. The rooms are richly decorated with works of the arts and crafts, there are portrayals from the Tannhäuser saga, from Lohengrin, Tristan and Isolde, the Nibelungenlied, Parzival and from the life of Walter von der Vogelweide, a medieval German lyric poet.
The first concert in the Singers' Hall was held in 1933 to mark the 50th anniversary of Richard Wagner's death. Since 1969 the Neuschwanstein Castle Concerts have taken place every year in September.
Neuschwanstein Castle
The foundation stone was laid by King Ludwig II of Bavaria on 5th September 1869. The building was intended as a medieval knight's castle in the 12th/13th-century style. The outer façade of the gateway was completed in 1873. The main building and the adjoining buildings were faced with Schwangau marble from the quarry at Schwansee (Swan Lake). It was modelled largely on the Wartburg in Thuringia. The castle was to consist of five buildings: the gatehouse, the Knight's Building, the Bower (women's apartments), the King's Building (the main residential tract) and the keep. The original construction work
lasted 17 years and had to be discontinued because of Ludwig's early death.
By then, of the rooms in the main residential tract only the ground floor (kitchen and adjacent rooms), the third storey (the king's apartments and the Throne Room) and the fourth floor (Singers' Hall) had been completed. The rooms are richly decorated with works of the arts and crafts, there are portrayals from the Tannhäuser saga, from Lohengrin, Tristan and Isolde, the Nibelungenlied, Parzival and from the life of Walter von der Vogelweide, a medieval German lyric poet.
The first concert in the Singers' Hall was held in 1933 to mark the 50th anniversary of Richard Wagner's death. Since 1969 the Neuschwanstein Castle Concerts have taken place every year in September.
Neuschwanstein Castle
Neuschwanstein Castle
Neuschwanstein Castle
Hohenschwangau Castle
The ancient Schwangau castle of "Schwanstein", which was already dilapidated and uninhabitable when the Schwangau aristocracy died out, was purchased in 1535 by the patrician and Imperial Counsellor Johann von Paumgartner zu Paumgarten and completely rebuilt from 1538 to 1547. He gave it the new name "Hohenschwangau". Almost 300 years later the Paumgarten building was again in ruins. In 1829 the Bavarian Crown Prince Max, the son of Ludwig I, came to the district of Füssen on the occasion of a "history excursion" with his teacher and acquired this crumbling building. He had it rebuilt according to ancient extant plans by the architect and theatre painter Domenico Quaglio, who, although he originally came from the area of Lake Como, had long since settled in Munich. The whole complex lives in the spirit of the romantic era. Such names as the Swan Knight's Hall, Guelph Room and Hohenstaufen Room
are indications of a living attachment to sagas and history. The Castle Courtyard, whose finest ornamentation is the Mary Fountain, is immediately adjacent to the Castle Garden, which is enclosed by a castellated outer wall. In the centre of a circular flowerbed is a pool with a water-spouting swan.
Hohenschwangau Castle
The ancient Schwangau castle of "Schwanstein", which was already dilapidated and uninhabitable when the Schwangau aristocracy died out, was purchased in 1535 by the patrician and Imperial Counsellor Johann von Paumgartner zu Paumgarten and completely rebuilt from 1538 to 1547. He gave it the new name "Hohenschwangau". Almost 300 years later the Paumgarten building was again in ruins. In 1829 the Bavarian Crown Prince Max, the son of Ludwig I, came to the district of Füssen on the occasion of a "history excursion" with his teacher and acquired this crumbling building. He had it rebuilt according to ancient extant plans by the architect and theatre painter Domenico Quaglio, who, although he originally came from the area of Lake Como, had long since settled in Munich. The whole complex lives in the spirit of the romantic era. Such names as the Swan Knight's Hall, Guelph Room and Hohenstaufen Room
are indications of a living attachment to sagas and history. The Castle Courtyard, whose finest ornamentation is the Mary Fountain, is immediately adjacent to the Castle Garden, which is enclosed by a castellated outer wall. In the centre of a circular flowerbed is a pool with a water-spouting swan.
Hohenschwangau Castle
Hohenschwangau Castle
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