Neuschwanstein, Ludwig II’s greatest Wagnerian fantasy

An 1867 visit to Schloss Wartburg, the setting for the singing contest in Wagner’s Tannhäuser, inspired Ludwig to build his most famous castle, Neuschwanstein. He selected a mountaintop overlooking his childhood home of Hohenschwangau, near the town of Füssen, and began construction in 1868. Ludwig described the building as “a temple worthy of the Divine Friend [Wagner], who has brought salvation and true blessing to the world.” In keeping with the castle’s fantastic nature, the king asked stage designer Christian Jank to draw up the plans, which reflected sets from Wagner’s operas. Although the interiors were originally conceived as evocations of the operas, as Ludwig’s relationship with and faith in the composer soured, he demanded that frescoes and murals be changed to accord with the Medieval sagas and not merely…

You're reading a preview of

History Of Royals (Digital) - 1 Issue, No. 20

DiscountMags is a licensed distributor (not a publisher) of the above content and Publication through Zinio LLC. Accordingly, we have no editorial control over the Publications. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers or other information or content expressed or made available by third parties, including those made in Publications offered on our website, are those of the respective author(s) or publisher(s) and not of DiscountMags. DiscountMags does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, truthfulness, or usefulness of all or any portion of any publication or any services or offers made by third parties, nor will we be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on information contained in any Publication, or your use of services offered, or your acceptance of any offers made through the Service or the Publications. For content removal requests, please contact Zinio.