In Australia, our experience of castles is largely relegated to building them on the beach with a bucket and spade, cobbling them together out of Lego, or seeing them as the backdrop for whatever medieval drama hoves into view on screen (we got two of note last year – the Arthurian legend The Green Knight, and the merciless deconstruction that is The Last Duel). The fascination remains, though – there’s just something about all those battlements and crenelations, arrow slits and portcullises, that fires the imagination (and coincidentally our favourite film is, of course, The Castle).
As its title suggests, the new documentary series Legendary Castles offers an insight into what goes into the making of a great castle, kicking off in its debut episode with a close look at the fabulous Neuschwanstein Castle in Southern Bavaria.
The fairy tale glory of Neuschwanstein. Source: RMC Production
The Swan King
Historically speaking, Neuschwanstein is a relatively new castle, but it has a bigger cultural footprint than many older fortresses – its fairy-tale towers inspired none other than Walt Disney, who used it as his model for the castles in Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. Construction began in 1869 on the orders of King Ludwig II, the last king of independent Bavaria, also known as the Swan King and, less charitably, Mad King Ludwig.
An eccentric and romantic – he was especially inspired by of the previous generation – Ludwig intended Neuschwanstein to be a personal residence, and so the castle holds no military significance. Its location in the Bavarian Alps was chosen for purely aesthetic reasons, on a peak previously occupied by two medieval fortresses. Nonetheless, construction was an undertaking with the scale and complexity of a military operation.
King Ludwig II Source: RMC Production
The peak was dynamited flat and a steam crane installed to haul materials up the mountain. As many as three hundred workers were engaged in bringing Ludwig’s vision to life – his notion of the perfect medieval castle, bringing the Romantic ideal of the medieval era into what was then the modern day. It was supposed to take three years, but Ludwig kept expanding and changing the plan, and so construction only stopped in 1886, upon Ludwig’s death. Never fully completed, it was opened to the public shortly after.
The fairy-tale castle
What’s fascinating about Neuschwanstein Castle is that it is ahistorical – it’s a 19th century man’s notion of what a medieval castle should be, with his notions of the Middle Ages filtered through his own culture. Ludwig may have pined for the old days, but he was also a fan of modern conveniences – Neuschwanstein features plumbing and electricity, telephones and central heating, and all the luxuries fit for a literal king. Indeed, modern construction techniques were necessary simply to implement Ludwig’s ambitious plans. Without steel reinforcing, the great Throne Hall, a vast chamber in a Byzantine style that takes up two floors of the castle’s west wing, would simply collapse.
But from an aesthetic point of view, Neuschwanstein Castle is a marvel. The exterior towers and battlements are simply awe-inspiring, but no more so than the sumptuously appointed interior halls, each decorated in a range of different styles. Ludwig spared no expense, going into great debt to finance his castle; indeed, when his creditors threatened to seize some of his properties to cover what he owed, he threatened suicide (he was also underwriting many other cultural projects at the time, including the work of the composer Richard Wagner).
Its position affords marvellous views. Source: RMC Production
Inside the castle. Source: RMC Production
Changing times
With that in mind, Neuschwanstein stands not just as a physical edifice, but a symbol of the excesses of 19th century monarchy. King Ludwig II died well before the upheavals of the early 20th century, when the First World War and the Russian Revolution heralded a massive transfer of political power out of the hands of hereditary dynasties. For all its grandeur, Neuschwanstein was a wild indulgence, and Ludwig ignored matters of state to pursue his Romantic dreams, to the detriment of Bavaria in particular and Germany as a whole.
We may never see another Neuschwanstein, and that’s probably for the best, but it’s impossible not to admire it for the magnificent folly that it is.
See all the glory of Neuschwanstein and how it was built in the first episode of Legendary Castles, now streaming at SBS On Demand:
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