We went back to Fussen, Germany where we toured the Neuschwanstein castle more than a month ago. We set off early on a Saturday morning and drove the 1 and a ½ hours to our castle of choice the Hohenschwangau castle. This castle was the childhood castle of King Von Ludwig the 2nd, where as the Neuschwanstein castle was built by him in his early twenties.
The whole family walked up the easy incline to reach the castle, which only took about 10 minutes. The castle is yellow in color and built in a Neo Gothic Tutor style, which is much different from the Neuschwanstein castle. It was rebuilt by Ludwig’s father King Maximilian the 2nd over a four year period that ended in 1836. It had previously been destroyed by Napoleon’s troupes around 1799.
The castle dates back to the 1200’s when it was owned by knights and their symbol was the swan. This might be why, as a young prince, Ludwig had a fascination with them. The literal translation of Hohenschwangau is “Highland of the Swans”.
Hohenschwangau was used by the royal family as a summer cottage or a hunting palace. They also used it for entertaining and one room held a table that was 60 m x 30 m long. It almost took up the whole width of the castle. This was called the festival hall and also called the hall of heroes and knights. The stucco ceiling was decorated with neo-Gothic ornaments on a pink background with a diorama of silver stars. All of the columns were in the Gothic style.
Throughout the castle there were original gifts given to the family over the years made from silver and gold. One of the gifts was a centerpiece given to the King and Queen on the day of their union. Since the Queen was a princess from Prussia the large goblet held the Prussian symbol of an eagle on one side and the Bavarian symbol of a lion on the other side for King Maximilian.
Each room had a special tiled heater that was decorated differently and painted in various colors. From behind the heater there was a narrow passageway that the servants used to access it. They would enter from a door on the other side, so they didn’t disturb the royal family. This allowed them to feed the heater with wood when needed. The servants could hear the conversations going on inside of the rooms, but never divulged this information to the outside world.
There was a room called the Tasso Room, which was the bedroom of King Maximilian. This room later became the bedroom of King Ludwig. When it was King Maximilian’s room he had a secret door that led to the Queen’s bedroom and another secret room that led to the lavatory. The paintings on the wall told the story of Armida and Rinaldo from an epic poem. When King Ludwig occupied it he changed the ceiling to a night sky with tiny openings of glass in the ceiling. This allowed him to light a lantern on the third floor that would shine down into the room at night. Then it magically became a star-lit night.
Just outside this room Ludwig set up a telescope where he had a perfect view of Neuschwanstein from the window. This was so that he could watch the construction on his castle while he stayed in the Hohenschwangau castle.
The queen’s bedroom was decorated in a dark blue color with gold and fuschia. This was called the Oriental Room in memory of King Maximilian’s trip to Turkey and Greece in 1832.
At one point we climbed up 90 steps to the second floor inside of one of the castles turrets. It was narrow and steep and the stairs curled around an actual electric elevator that was built in the late 18th century.
King Von Ludwig the 2nd’s uncle Luitpold became the acting king called the Prince Regent after Ludwig’s death. This was due to the fact that Ludwig’s brother Otto the 1st was in an insane asylum and unfit to rule. Luitpold ruled from 1886-1913 until the age of 90. Luitpold had a son named King Ludwig the 3rd who was the last king to rule in Bavaria from 1913-1918. Under his rule came the great economic rise of Bavaria, but due to the Great War from 1914-1918, he was forced to abdicate.
It was another interesting tour and very rewarding for all of us. We all agreed that the fairy tale castle – Neuschwanstein is our favorite between Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein. King Ludwig built two others in the valley that we haven’t visited yet. Maybe we’ll go to them in the future.
After the tour we went to Mary’s bridge (Marienbrucke) by taking a bus up a nearby mountain. You can view the Neuschwanstein castle from afar on Mary's bridge. The bridge was built over a hundred years ago and resembles a suspension bridge. Underneath us was the Pollat Gorge with a beautiful waterfall. We were silly enough to hike above the bridge on a trail that stated “Beware-Danger of Death”. The trail skirted the edge of a 5, 500 foot drop from on top of the Tegelberg mountain. I set up my tripod with my Canon Digital Rebel and 400 mm zoom lens on the edge of the cliff and started shooting. I ended up with some incredible photos, which you can view on the website. I had my little Canon Powershot as well, so I took some black and white and sepia tone photos. They turned out great, but I'm not sure it was worth the life-threatening situation!
Then we went to the town of Fussen and looked around. It was very quaint with a true Bavarian feel. We ended up at a Chinese restaurant for supper and then drove home afterwards.
Author: Lisa Allen