At the Neuschwanstein Castle, in the municipality of Schwangau, Germany

 "I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt...."

-- Lewis Carol, “Through the Looking Glass”
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(in the Swabia region of Bavaria, in the municipality of Schwangau, above the village of Hohenschwangau, which is also the location of Hohenschwangau Castle.) Neuschwanstein Castle is a 19th-century historicist palace on a rugged hill of the foothills of the Alps in the very south of Germany, just north of Austria. The closest larger town is Füssen. Neuschwanstein Castle was built atop a rock ledge over the Pöllat Gorge in the Bavarian Alps by order of Bavaria’s King Louis II.

+ Louis II spent much of his childhood at Hohenschwangau Castle, a neo-Gothic, medieval-inspired castle elaborately decorated with scenes from legend and poetry. After his accession to the throne in 1864, Louis set out to build a “New Hohenschwangau Castle,” which he intended to be a better reproduction of a medieval-style castle in line with his fairy-tale vision of monarchy.

+ Appearing through the mountaintops like a mirage, King Ludwig II planned this fairy-tale pile himself, with the help of a stage designer rather than an architect. He envisioned it as a giant stage on which to recreate the world of Germanic mythology, inspired by the operatic works of his friend Richard Wagner. (The most impressive room is the Sängersaal [Minstrels’ Hall], whose frescos depict scenes from the opera Tannhäuser.)

+ Work started in 1869 and, like so many of Ludwig’s grand schemes, was never finished. For all the sums spent on it, the king spent just over 170 days in residence. Completed sections include Ludwig’s Tristan and Isolde–themed bedroom, an artificial grotto (another allusion to Tannhäuser), and the Throne Room) with a mosaic floor containing over two million stones. Although Louis expected the entire project to be completed within three years, only the gateway building was inhabitable by 1873. The topping-out ceremony was held on January 29, 1880, though the castle was still under construction. The castle remained incomplete in 1886, when Louis died by drowning himself. He had lived there, off and on, only some six months in total. Several weeks after his passing, the unfinished castle was opened to the public as a museum. Simplified versions of the castle’s bower and square tower were not completed until 1892, and only about a dozen rooms were ever finished. In contrast to the medieval castles it was modeled after, Neuschwanstein is equipped with running water throughout, including flush toilets and hot water in the kitchen and baths, and has a forced-air central heating system. The dining room is serviced by an elevator from the kitchen three stories below. Louis even made sure the castle was connected to telephone lines, although at the time of its construction very few people had telephones.