White concrete building near bare trees under blue sky

Füssen - Bavaria - Germany

Neuschwanstein Castle is one of the symbols of Bavaria in the world. It is the fairytale castle par excellence, built by the "fairytale king" Ludwig II of Bavaria (1845-1886) starting from 1869 on a project by the set designer Christian Jank. The idea of building it in the style of the old German feudal residences came to the monarch after he was almost struck by a visit in 1867 to the medieval fortress of Wartburg in Thuringia.Walt Disney, fascinated by him, took Neuschwanstein as a model for the castle of his famous animated film "Sleeping Beauty" (1959). This mansion is also present in all Disney parks around the world. The richly furnished interior rooms are a tribute to Richard Wagner's musical genius, from "Tannhäuser" to "Lohengrin" passing through "Tristan and Isolde", "The master singers of Nuremberg" and "Parsifal", a hymn to romanticism and the ancient Germanic legends.