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MAD
KING LUDWIG'S PLEASURE PALACE
Rococco Schloss Linderhof & Grotto
The
father built a country and the son built houses. King Maximillian II
would take his young son Ludwig on
hunting trips into the Bavarian
Ammergau Alps where he had his country residence the "Königshäuschen".
A master politician as well as hereditary king, Maximillian II had taken
a collection of fractious Bavarian fiefdoms and formed them into a modern
successful
thriving state. When his son, born at the summer palace in Munich
(see Nymphenburg
Palace) came to the throne, he saw himself not unlike the
French “sun-king” Loius
XIV, an absolute monarch who needed palaces to establish his image. His
first
palace was
Linderhof,
reconstructed
from his father’s earlier hunting lodge into a magnificent yet “intimate” personal
monument to his royal self image.
Built
in rococco opulance of gilt gold in almost every nook and corner,
the hall of mirrors dazzles with echoes of reflected golden candelabras.
The palace,
which
was Ludwig
II’s
favorite escape and the only one of his planned palaces actually completed
during his lifetime, was an inpiration taken from Versailles. He would
later build a
more
exacting
replica of Louis' country palace,
the Herrenchiemsee
Palace on Lake Chiemsee on the other side of Bavaria, and also the nearby
famous medieval revival castle Neuschschwanstein (see Ludwig's
Fantasy Castle Neuschwanstein)
from which Walt Disney got the inspiration for his Sleeping Beauty
castle at Anaheim’s
Disneyland
King Ludwig would stay up nights and sleep in the day, so his bedroom
took prominence as his place of “work”, with appropriate
homages to his French sun king idol on the pruple and gold
drapings of his massive bed. The formal gardens of Linderhof
are some of the most beautiful in southern Germany, fronted
by the Naiad Fountain
where water
nymphs gambol amid the waters of the the high spouting
fountain, surrounded by moorish style pavilions, so popular
among the raoyl calls at the time.
Linderhof is perhaps most famous for it’s “Grotto”,
an artificial creation based on an illustration from a scene in Wagner’s “Tannhauser”.
The grotto was illuminated in changing colors and Ludwig liked to
be rowed across the water in a golded shell shaped boat. It might
be argued that “Mad” Ludwig’s extravagant
spending on his palace projects, expressing his own God-granted monarchical
right rather than focusing on the prosperity of his people, might
be one of the causes which led inexhorably to WWI and the following rise
of Naziism, inspiring Hitler’s Wagnerian ideas of racial destiny,
but it cannot be denied King Ludwig II’s scholss building left
behind a boon to modern day tourism.
Visiting
Schloss Linderhof
Visits to Schloss Linderhof and Schloss Neuschwanstein can be made
with regular bus tours
from Munich (see Munich
Sight-Seeing Tours) and can
be arranged through most hotels and the tourism offices. By car
Linderhof is about an hour drive from Munich, and Neuschwanstein
is about
40 mintues from Linderhof near
Schwangau with a little dip into Austria, sure you can take a
bus tour, but a drive through the beautiful
alpine countryside of Bavaria, dotted with gingerbread
lodgings is why God invented rental cars. The Ettal Abbey Basilica
monastery (see Ettal
Abbey Baroque Bavaria) is a short drive away though
Oberammergau home of the famous Passion Play. © Bargain
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SEE
ALSO:
MURNAU
CASTLE ART MUSEUM
KALTENBERG
KNIGHTS TOURNAMENT
MUNICH'S
ENGLISCHER GARTEN
WINE
AND SAUSAGE FESTIVAL - GERMAN WINE ROAD
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