Inspiration and design Neuschwanstein embodies both the contemporaneous architectural fashion known as castle
Romanticism () and King Ludwig II's enthusiasm for the operas of Richard Wagner. In the 19th century, many castles were constructed or reconstructed, often with significant changes, to make them more picturesque. Palace-building projects similar to Neuschwanstein had been undertaken earlier in several of the German states and included Hohenschwangau Castle,
Lichtenstein Castle,
Hohenzollern Castle, and numerous buildings on the
Rhine, such as
Stolzenfels Castle.
Marienburg Castle, begun in 1858 for the King of Hanover, was completed in 1867. The more detailed inspiration for the construction of Neuschwanstein came from two journeys that Ludwig took in 1867: one in May to the reconstructed
Wartburg near
Eisenach, site of the mythical
Sängerkrieg and thus setting of Wagner's opera ''
Tannhäuser and the Singers' Contest at Wartburg'', and another in July to the
Château de Pierrefonds, which
Eugène Viollet-le-Duc was transforming from a ruined castle into a
historicist palace for
Napoleon III. Ludwig believed both buildings represented a
Romanticist interpretation of the Middle Ages, as well as the musical mythology of his friend Wagner, whose operas
Tannhäuser and
Lohengrin had made a lasting impression on him. In February 1868, Ludwig's grandfather, King
Ludwig I, died, freeing the considerable sums that were previously spent on the abdicated King's
appanage. This allowed Ludwig II to start the architectural project of building a private refuge in the familiar landscape far from the capital Munich, so that he could live out his idea of the Middle Ages. In a letter to Richard Wagner in May 1868, Ludwig wrote: The building design was drafted by the stage designer
Christian Jank and realised by the architect
Eduard Riedel. For technical reasons, the ruined castles could not be integrated into the plan. Initial ideas for the palace drew stylistically on
Nuremberg Castle and envisaged a simple building in place of the old Vorderhohenschwangau Castle, but they were rejected and replaced by increasingly extensive drafts, culminating in a bigger palace modelled on the Wartburg. The king insisted on a detailed plan and on personal approval of each and every draft. Ludwig's control went so far that the palace has been regarded as his own creation rather than that of the architects involved. Whereas contemporary architecture critics derided Neuschwanstein, one of the last big palace building projects of the 19th century, as
kitsch, Neuschwanstein and Ludwig II's other buildings are now counted among the major works of European historicism. For financial reasons, a project similar to Neuschwanstein—
Falkenstein Castle—never got past the planning stages. The palace can be regarded as typical of 19th-century architecture. The shapes of
Romanesque (simple geometric figures such as cuboids and semicircular arches),
Gothic (upward-pointing lines, slim towers, delicate embellishments), and Byzantine architecture and art (the Throne Hall décor) were mingled in an eclectic fashion and supplemented with 19th-century technical achievements. The
Patrona Bavariae and
Saint George on the court face of the (main building) are depicted in the local
Lüftlmalerei style, a
fresco technique typical for
Allgäu farmers' houses, while the unimplemented drafts for the Knights' House gallery foreshadow elements of
Art Nouveau. Characteristic of Neuschwanstein's design are theatre themes: Christian Jank drew on coulisse drafts from his time as a scenic painter. The foundation stone for the palace was laid on 5 September 1869; in 1872, its cellar was completed, and in 1876, everything up to the first floor, the gatehouse being finished first. At the end of 1882, it was completed and fully furnished, allowing Ludwig to take provisional lodgings there and observe the ongoing construction work. In 1874, management of the civil works passed from Eduard Riedel to
Georg von Dollmann. The
topping out ceremony for the was in 1880, and in 1884 the King moved in to the new building. In the same year, the direction of the project passed to , after Dollmann had fallen from the King's favour. The palace was erected as a conventional brick construction and later encased in various types of rock. The white limestone used for the fronts came from a nearby quarry. The sandstone bricks for the
portals and
bay windows came from
Schlaitdorf in
Württemberg.
Marble from
Untersberg near
Salzburg was used for the windows, the arch ribs, the
columns and the
capitals. The Throne Hall was a later addition to the plans and required a steel framework. The transport of building materials was facilitated by scaffolding and a steam crane that lifted the material to the construction site. Another crane was used at the construction site. The recently founded
Dampfkessel-Revisionsverein (Steam Boiler Inspection Association) regularly inspected both boilers. For about two decades, the construction site was the principal employer in the region. In 1880, about 200 craftsmen were occupied at the site, not counting suppliers and other persons indirectly involved in the construction. At times when the King insisted on particularly close deadlines and urgent changes, reportedly up to 300 workers per day were active, sometimes working at night by the light of oil lamps. Statistics from the years 1879/1880 support an immense amount of building materials: of Salzburg marble, of sandstone, 400,000 bricks and of wood for the scaffolding. In 1870, a society was founded for insuring the workers, for a low monthly fee, augmented by the King. The heirs of construction casualties (30 cases are mentioned in the statistics) received a small pension. In 1884, the King moved into the (still unfinished) '
, and in 1885 he invited his mother Marie to Neuschwanstein on the occasion of her 60th birthday. By 1886, the external structure of the ' (hall) was mostly finished. In the end, Ludwig II lived in the palace for a total of only 172 days.
Funding The King's demands expanded during the construction of Neuschwanstein, and so did the expenses. Drafts and estimated costs were revised repeatedly. Initially a modest study was planned instead of the great throne hall, and projected guest rooms were struck from the drafts to make place for a
Moorish Hall, which could not be realised due to lack of resources. Completion was originally projected for 1872 but repeatedly deferred. Linderhof, the smallest of the projects, was finished in 1886, and the other two remain incomplete. All three projects together drained his resources. The King paid for his construction projects by private means and from his
civil list income. Contrary to frequent claims, the Bavarian treasury was not directly burdened by his buildings. From 1871, Ludwig had an additional secret income in return for a political favour given to
Otto von Bismarck. The construction costs of Neuschwanstein in the King's lifetime amounted to 6.2 million
German gold marks (equivalent to € million in ), almost twice the initial cost estimate of 3.2 million marks. In 1876, a court counselor was replaced after pointing out the danger of insolvency. By 1883, he already owed 7 million marks, and in spring 1884 and August 1885 debt conversions of 7.5 million marks and 6.5 million marks, respectively, became necessary. In expectation of the commission, he alerted the gendarmerie and fire brigades of surrounding places for his protection. Plans for a castle garden with terraces and a fountain west of the were also abandoned after the King's death. The interior of the royal living space in the palace was mostly completed in 1886; the lobbies and corridors were painted in a simpler style by 1888. The
Moorish Hall, which was desired by the King and planned below the Throne Hall, was not realised any more than the ''Knights' Bath'', which was modelled after the Knights' Bath in the Wartburg and was intended to render homage to the knights' cult as a medieval baptism bath. A
Bride Chamber in the Bower (after a location in
Lohengrin), guest rooms in the first and second floor of the and a great banquet hall were further abandoned projects. From then until
World War I, Neuschwanstein was a stable and lucrative source of revenue for the
House of Wittelsbach, and King Ludwig's castles were probably the single largest income source earned by the Bavarian royal family in the last years prior to 1914. To guarantee a smooth course of visits, some rooms and the court buildings were finished first. Initially, the visitors were allowed to move freely in the palace, causing the furniture to wear quickly. When Bavaria became a republic in 1918, the government socialised the
civil list. The resulting dispute with the House of Wittelsbach led to a split in 1923: King Ludwig's palaces including Neuschwanstein fell to the state and are now managed by the
Bavarian Palace Department, a division of the Bavarian finance ministry. Nearby Hohenschwangau Castle fell to the (
Wittelsbacher Ausgleichsfonds), whose revenues go to the House of Wittelsbach. The visitor numbers continued to rise, reaching 200,000 in 1939. The castle was used to catalogue the works of art. After
World War II, 39 photo albums were found in the palace documenting the scale of the art seizures. The albums are now stored in the
United States National Archives. In April 1945, the
SS considered blowing up the palace to prevent the building and the artwork it contained from falling to the enemy. The plan was not realised by the
SS-'''' who had been assigned the task, and at the end of the war the palace was surrendered undamaged to representatives of the
Allied forces. ==Architecture==