So far so serviceable, if you want to mine the second most obvious source in all of fantasy. But this story spins off in several curious directions and the devil and his salvation is in the details. Work stopped on the castle the day the king died, so only the 4th floor and above were finished. That was enough to make it into an attraction, however, and it was handed over to the new German state and opened to the public just 6 weeks after Ludwig drowned was bludgeoned to death following his arrest.
Which is pretty quick moving, from a building site riddled with rebellious, gossiping servants to a state museum. And once you do, you start to wonder why Disney never made a Lohengrin or Tristan and Isolde. Take this painting in the Hall of the Singers, for instance:. Roaring like a mouse from beyond the grave. Valencia Cathedral , Spain, for comparison. Or his tomb-like bed, crowned with wooden copies of a dozen mausoleum towers modern toilet hidden behind the paneling.
Or the bed he actually slept in, in Hohenschwangau, under a painted night sky in which the stars and moon could be lit up, by means of lamps hidden in a crawlspace above. Because like movie music or a well-written novel, they guide you in your reception.
There is one classic exterior photo of Neuschwanstein that every tourist takes:. They take it from the Marienburg bridge, because it offers the one vantage point from which you can see the whole castle. The point where you would, naturally, have your Kodak moment.
In short, the whole thing is a masterclass in presenting an experience to the visitor. It only looks, superficially, like a castle. Or that its younger brother , Castle Falkenstein, miscarried before it could get a foot onto the earth.
