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MAD KING LUDWIG'S PLEASURE PALACE
Schloss Linderhof

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 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 hunting lodge into a magnificent yet “intimate” personal monument.

Built in rococco baroque opulance, the hall of mirrors dazzles with echoes of reflected golden candelabras. The palace, which was Ludvig II’s favorite and the only one actually finished in his lifetime, was an inpiration of Versailles. He would later build a more exacting replica the Herrenchiemsee Palace on lake Chiemsee on the other side of Bavaria and the nearby medieval revival castle Schloss Neuschschwanstein (see GERMAN KING'S FANTASY CASTLE) from which Walt Disney got the inspiration for his fantasy 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. The formal gardens of Linderhof are some of the most beautiful in Germany, fronted by the Naiad Fountain with water nymphs and the high spouting fountain, and dotted with moorish style pavilions.

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.

To visit Schloss Linderhof and Schloss Neuschwanstein, both near Schwangau about a hour south of Munich, regular bus tours (see Munich Sight-Seeing Tours) can be arranged through most hotels and tour services, but a drive through the beautiful alpine countryside of Bavaria, dotted with gingerbread alpine lodgings is why God invented rental cars. The Ettal Abbey Basilica monastery (see Ettal Abbey Baroque Bavaria) is a short drive away though Oberammergau. © Bargain Travel Europe

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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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