King Ludwig II - the "Fairy Tale King"

Ludwig II was the only one of his buildings to complete his Royal Villa (1878). It has a French influence: behind the baroque facade, rococo style unfolds based on motifs from the time of Louis XV. Ludwig also adopted much of the South German Rococo of his ancestors, as he had experienced it as a child in Nymphenburg, and created rooms of the greatest abundance and preciousness in Linderhof. The park, one of the most beautiful of the 19th century, combines motifs from the Baroque garden with magnificent water parterres and the English landscape garden. It is home to fascinating buildings such as the Moroccan House, the Moorish Kiosk and the Venus Grotto, a huge artificial grotto, designed according to Richard Wagner's stage directions for Act I of his opera Tannhäuser. Two other sets from Wagner's musical dramas erected in the park are the Hundinghütte (Act I of Walküre) and the Hermitage of Gurnemanz (Act III of Parsifal). Linderhof was Ludwig II's declared favorite place.

Built by Ludwig II in 1868 high above his father's Hohenschwangau Castle in familiar surroundings and never completed, Neuschwanstein was for him a monument to the culture and royalty of the Middle Ages, which he revered and wanted to understand. The castle, which was designed and equipped in medieval form but with the most modern technology of the time, is one of the world's most famous buildings and is a main symbol of German idealism. The interiors show cycles of murals from Old Norse and chivalric legends. The singers' hall reverently cites two halls of the Wartburg, the throne room - a cult room of the rulers - Byzantine and early Christian church rooms.

In a magnificent location in front of the high alpine Wetterstein massif, Ludwig II had a small castle built at an altitude of over 1800 m. Simple from the outside and inside on the ground floor, the wooden house hides oriental splendor on the upper floor. The king used to celebrate his birthday and name day in the seclusion of the mountains in the lavishly decorated Turkish Hall, which was equipped with divans and a fountain. The royal family can only be reached on foot via Elmau or Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

The baroque complex, together with its park palaces Amalienburg, Badenburg, Pagodenburg and Magdalenenklause, is a world-class work of art. Ludwig II was born in this summer residence of the Bavarian electors and kings on August 25, 1845, on St. Ludwig's Day. The following day he was baptized in the Stone Hall of the main castle. The authentically preserved birth room of Ludwig II can be visited as part of the queen's apartment. The portrait of his mother Marie belongs to King Ludwig I's famous gallery of beauties in the castle. The Amalienburg was one of the king's most important sources of inspiration.

This monument to absolutism was built in 1878 and far exceeds its model, Versailles, in terms of the splendor of its furnishings. The state bedroom in the large apartment is considered the most expensive room of the 19th century. The porcelain furnishings for the Small Apartment are the largest single order that the Meißen manufactory has ever received. The embroidery on the textiles is unparalleled in terms of abundance and quality. Ludwig II invoked royalty in this castle with all the rigor and means he could. It remained unfinished, as did the surrounding park based on the Versailles model with its grandiose water features, which was supposed to cover most of the island and is now surrounded by open nature with important biotopes.

In the castle, the extensive Ludwig II Museum documents the life and work of this “only true king of the 19th century,” as Paul Verlaine called him in 1886.