Neuschwanstein

Things just couldn't be done fast enough. In 1868, only four years after his coronation, the twenty-three year old king Ludwig ll ordered the drafting of plans for a castle to be built within view of his parents seat Hohenschwangau.From impressions engraved in his mind from his time at Hohenschwangau, Ludwig ll followed the traditional of medieval chivalry. Starting with the original idea of a small building of almost playful lightness, a plan soon grew for a monumental castle in a neo-Romanesque style. In 1880 the basic structure of Neuschwanstein, which is at the same time a fortress and a royal residence, had been finished; the entire complex however was only completed in 1892, after the king’s death. Only the principal rooms in a castle, the living quarters and state rooms, however, would be furnished during Ludwig ll’s lifetime.

    A ling drive winds up to the crenelated gateway flanked by corner towers.

Originally Neuschwanstein was intended as a „temple“ to Richard Wagner. Tristan and Isolde, Lohengri, Tannhauser, and Die Meistersinger were the operas from which the motifs for the murals wer supposed to be taken. For the king something else mattered: namely with Neuschwantein he envisioned ressurecting Mont Salvat, the mythical castle of the Holy Grail. For him the world of the Grail was the most chivalrous and exalted form of a Christian endeavor. Recent art historical research has only now been able to clarify how such notions can be explained solely on the basis of Ludwig’s own life history. The gravely oppresive conflict he endured between a guilt-ridden eroticism, with which he struggled throughout his life, and his resultant deep longing for purity and holiness, weighed heavily on him. Sin and Salvation are the basic concepts based on which the legends to be illustrated were chosen.