Neuschwanstein: King Ludwig‘s dream castle and its secrets | History Stories Special

No other place is as charged with myths, legend and secrets than Neuschwanstein Castle. The childhood dream of a young prince became the most exciting building project in the world, when the foundation stone of the castle was laid on September 5, 1869. Today, Bavaria’s most famous building is inextricably linked to the fate of its builder, King Ludwig II. “The sudden death of the king gave the castle a brilliant start in its career as a tourist attraction,“ says Ludwig, Prince of Bavaria, a relative of the fairy-tale king. “It’s a built fantasy. You’re not in a house, you’re in a dream.“ Even when it was built, the castle seems to have fallen out of time. It’s the perfect symbiosis of high-tech and medieval. The feeling of not being understood and accepted caused the monarch to slip into ever more enraptured dream worlds. Neuschwanstein became his last refuge. King Ludwig II. was denied the opportunity to live in his palace in its completed state. On J