Neuschwanstein & Hohenschwangau, Germany

Neuschwanstein Schloss is one of the most well-known sights in Germany. It is visited by about 1.5 million tourists annually. Castle stands near Füssen in the south-eastern Bavarian Allgäu. The building was erected from 1869 for the Bavarian King Ludwig II as an idealized idea of a knight’s castle from the Middle Ages. He died before the construction was completed. Hohenschwangau Castle is a 19th-century palac and it was the childhood residence of King Ludwig II of Bavaria and was built by his father, King Maximilian II of Bavaria. History: the fortress Schwangau, which was first mentioned in historical records dating from the 12th Century, stood high up on a rock on the site of the present Neuschwanstein castle. The present day Hohenschwangau (“Upper Schwangau“) castle was first mentioned in 1397, though under the name of Schwanstein. Only in the 19th century the names of the two castles have switched. It was built on a hill above lake Alpsee, below the older fortress.