Page 214 - WDT INTERACTIVE

before the king’s death. You get whisked through the
whole place in around a half hour. (Though you can
spend as long as you want in the gift shop.)
The castle was never meant to hold a royal court
and none of the viewable rooms are particularly large.
The biggest, the Hall of the Singers, is 89-by-33 feet.
About half-way through any of the rooms, the narra-
tion tapers off and you begin to feel pressure from
the incoming tide of tourists behind you. Gawking
time is limited.
Still a half-hour inside Neuwchwanstein is like being
inside a princely fever dream. The handful of rooms
is crammed with marble columns, gilt cornices,
mosaics, paintings, carvings, statues, mythological
murals, and Godzilla’s massive tiara. No, wait, that’s a
bejeweled chandelier with 96 candles weighing a ton
and shaped like a Byzantine crown.
Ludwig’s bedroom sports a carved bed stand
shaped like a Gothic tower; the living room features
160 swans -- painted, carved or cast in bronze. Even
the door handles are swan-shaped. Ludwig knew
Richard Wagner and opera scenes from “Tannhauser,”
“Lohengrin” and “Parsifal” fill the walls.
Ludwig seems to have channeled Liberace as
Bavarian monarch. Delightful, kitschy, and a little
crazy in a good way.
For all the time spent on building Neuschwanstein,
Ludwig occupied the finished rooms for less than half
a year and slept over only 11 nights. The flight of his
imagination and failure of his ambitions are themes
that were laid out by both Dani and our castle guide.
Psychological theories abound, many hinging on
family dynamics and sexual orientation.

Tourists crowd a bridge to get there best
panoramic view of the castle.
A horse-drawn carriage carts tourists up the
mile-long road to the castle gates.
Right: The castle 10 years after its completion.

214 WDT MAGAZINE WINTER 2018