At the Schloss Linderhof, in southwest Bavaria, near the village of Ettal, Germany

 “Sublime wonders lie in store,

I am shown a regal residence;
a mighty kingdom, an empire
with more grandeur than before ....”
― E.A. Bucchianeri, Phantom Phantasia: Poetry for the Phantom of the Opera
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 (in southwest Bavaria, near the village of Ettal) A trove of weird treasures, Schloss Linderhof was Ludwig II’s smallest but most sumptuous palace, and the only one he lived to see completed. Finished in 1878, the palace hugs a steep hillside in a fantasy landscape of French gardens, fountains, and follies. The reclusive king used the palace as a retreat and seldom received visitors here. Linderhof was inspired by Versailles and dedicated to Louis XIV, the French "Sun King."

+ Linderhof’s myth-laden, jewel-encrusted rooms are a monument to the king’s excesses that so unsettled government functionaries in Munich. The private bedroom is the largest, heavily ornamented and anchored by a huge 108-candle crystal chandelier. An artificial waterfall, built to cool the room in summer, cascades just outside the window. The dining room reflects the king’s fetish for privacy and inventions. The king ate from a mechanized dining board, whimsically labelled "Table, Lay Yourself," that sank through the floor so that his servants could replenish it without being seen.

+ Created by the famous court gardener Carl von Effner, the gardens and outbuildings (open from April to October), are as fascinating as the castle itself. The highlight is the oriental-style Moorish Kiosk, where Ludwig, dressed in oriental garb, would preside over nightly entertainment from a peacock throne. Underwater light dances on the stalactites at the Venus Grotto, an artificial cave inspired by a stage set for Wagner’s Tannhäuser. Now sadly empty, Ludwig’s fantastic conch-shaped boat is moored by the shore.

+ Ludwig already knew the area around Linderhof from his youth, when he had accompanied his father King Maximilian II of Bavaria on hunting trips in the Bavarian Alps. When Ludwig II became King in 1864, he inherited the so-called Königshäuschen from his father, and in 1869 began enlarging the building. In 1874, he decided to tear down the Königshäuschen and rebuild it in its present-day location in the park. At the same time three new rooms and the staircase were added to the remaining U-shaped complex, and the previous wooden exterior was clad with stone façades.

+ The symbol of the sun that can be found everywhere in the decoration of the rooms represents the French notion of absolutism that, for Ludwig, was the perfect incorporation of his ideal of a God-given monarchy with total royal power. The bedroom was important to the ceremonial life of an absolute monarch; Louis XIV of France used to give his first and last audience of the day in his bedchamber. In imitation of Versailles, the bedroom is the largest chamber of Linderhof Palace. Yet, by facing north, the Linderhof bedroom inverts the symbolism of its Versailles counterpart, showing Ludwig's self-image as a "Night-King."