The first indication to visit Neuschwanstein Castle is to book tickets online a few days in advance. Discover the Disney Castle in Bavaria.
Il Neuschwanstein Castle it is located about 130 kilometers south of Monaco of Bavaria, almost on the border with Austria. Between castles of Bavaria it is certainly the most renowned and the one that attracts the most visitors from all over the world.
But you can't tell about Neuschwanstein Castle without talking about King Ludwig II. Tall, handsome, passionate about art, music and literature, patron, spendthrift, homosexual and schizophrenic (maybe yes or maybe no). Great friend of his sister-in-law, Princess Sissi, with whom he also risked becoming related for a while. Ludwig was indeed engaged to Sissi's sister: the wedding, first fixed and subsequently postponed, was finally canceled due to his more or less declared homosexuality.
A great admirer of Wagner, he financed many of his works by almost sending the royal coffers into red. Friendship and admiration for the famous German composer find space in the rooms of Neuschwanstein Castle, on whose walls there are frescoes inspired by "Tristan and Isolde”And other works by Wagner. With an impetuous and fragile personality at the same time, Ludwig II had numerous castles built for himself and for the love of medieval architecture, of which Neuschwanstein is today certainly the most noteworthy. Made famous all over the world by Walt Disney in "The Sleeping Beauty”, Neuschwanstein was supposed to be shelter and refuge for Ludwig, a gloomy and lonely man.
This was not the case, since Ludwig was declared when the castle was not yet completed mentally ill by a commission of doctors who had not even visited him but had relied on the testimonies of those who for one reason or another had had relations with the king. Thus it was that, forcibly taken from Neuschwanstein, Ludwig was taken and locked up in the castle of Berg, his prison until the day of his disappearance, which took place in circumstances that are still not entirely clear today. In fact, it seems that the king had been granted the opportunity to take a walk alone in the park and that, after a few hours, his body and the body of his doctor were found lifeless in the waters of Lake Starnberg. Accident? Murder? We are not given to know. In life as in death, Ludwig II's controversial personality has made and continues to be talked about.
The visit to Neuschwanstein Castle is a kind of journey into the life of the sovereign, in his soul and in his passions. From friendship with Wagner to the passion for caves, from the desire for isolation to the love for the Middle Ages and Baroque art: all enclosed in those rooms in which Ludwig's soul seems to hover serene, protecting his home. What struck me most during the visit was that I came across one fake cave, complete with stalactites and stalagmites, which acts as a corridor between the bedrooms and the living room. A suggestive and surreal atmosphere, like getting on a time machine, being catapulted elsewhere for a moment, as if it were an optical illusion, and then finding myself in an immense golden room, once lit by six hundred candles. Truly a one of a kind experience.
Another peculiarity of Neuschwanstein is that each room of the castle is different from the other: it has its own style, its own setting, a specific location in time and space. As if it had been explanted from remote places and placed there, to compose the perfect mosaic. You hardly believe it when you hear it told, yet it is real.
Contrasting emotions, therefore, those evoked by the visit to Neuschwanstein. Very relaxing there climb on foot on the hill on which the castle stands. About twenty minutes of walking, gentle and interspersed with the sound of the waters of a small waterfall. The view of the castle from the outside is romantic and fairytale, bringing back memories of children. Dark and Wagnerian, Baroque and Arabesque, glacial and winter the visit of the rooms. Finally, enjoyment and tourism, with immersion in souvenir shop inside the Castle itself, almost like waking up from a dream to gently bring us back to reality.
My advice is to book tickets online a couple of days before visiting the castle, in order to avoid long queues or, worse still, risk not having time to enter.
The ticket price is 12 €, including audio guide in English. The tour lasts approximately 30 minutes and children and young people under 18 enter for free.
