Picture of the Day: Neuschwanstein Castle

NEUSCHWANSTEIN CASTLE

Neuschwanstein Castle is a 19th-century Romanesque Revival palace (i.e., a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th and 12th century Romanesque architecture) on a rugged hill above the village of Hohenschwangau near Füssen in southwest Bavaria, Germany. 

The palace was commissioned by Ludwig II of Bavaria as a retreat and as a homage to Richard Wagner. Ludwig paid for the palace out of his personal fortune and by means of extensive borrowing, not with Bavarian public funds. The palace was intended as a personal refuge for the reclusive king, but it was opened to the paying public immediately after his death in 1886. 

Since then over 60 million people have visited Neuschwanstein Castle. More than 1.3 million people visit annually, with up to 6,000 per day in the summer. The palace has appeared prominently in several movies and was the inspiration for Disneyland’s Sleeping Beauty Castle.