A New UNESCO Site! What Makes Neuschwanstein Castle so Fascinating?

There it is, Neuschwanstein, Germany's most beloved castle. But what makes it so fascinating? Is it the stunning setting, the fairytale towers, or maybe it's dramatic history? Neuschwanstein is famous around the world as the castle of the fairytale king Ludwig II of Bavaria. And now it has finally been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Every year about 1 million people come to Bavaria just to see this place. But what exactly awaits them? And who was King Ludwig II, the man behind this magical creation? Let's find out. Follow me on a tour of the castle from the public-facing pomp to the king's most private quarters. I'll show you all you need to know before a visit. Neuschwanstein Castle is located near Hohenschwangau in Bavaria in southern Germany, about two hours by car from Munich. The crowds are huge year-round, even in the village below. Here you'll find souvenirs from swans to figurines of the king. You can buy tickets here, but it's better to book them online in advance. You can only go inside the castle as part of a guided tour at a specific time. Now you just have to get up to the castle. And then you have two options to get up. You can either walk, which takes about 30 minutes, or you can take a horse-drawn carriage for a more romantic and relaxed ride. From Zimmermannsplatz, located just below the castle, you get a first stunning close-up view. On the last stretch, you have no choice. The only way in is on foot. But before I go in, I want to know what brought the other visitors here. I think this is the must-be in Germany. It's very great, with long history, with very magnificent buildings. Very good. Love it. Like, this is crazy. The castle with the cliffs behind it and the Ravine. We saw the bridge across that. That's a beautiful scenario. And then from the other way with the lake as well. It's two completely different scenarios. But yeah, I think perfect location. Now I finally get to go in. We had to wait until all the visitors were gone because filming is only allowed outside opening hours. I get to enter through the courtyard. Patrick Kopp is going to guide me through the fairy tale king's castle. Would that have been in his interest to have millions of people walk through his dream castle? Not at all. There's an anecdote that he actually said on his last stay here. He said to have said to his personal servant, please Ritz, never let anybody go through here. So no, it was not... So we're effectively disrespecting his last words here. They were, they were. Not a good omen for a visit. Ludwig II grew up not far from here. Even after he became king, he preferred to stay in the Bavarian mountains rather than in his residence in Munich. What kind of a person was he? What was his personality? Do we know? We know quite a lot. He was a deep and contrasting character. He was a dreamer, certainly. An eccentric, certainly. Even more, becoming more eccentric the longer he lived. He liked art. He loved theater and music. Was not himself an artist, though. He liked to watch it. He didn't like a lot of the things that other young noblemen were meant to be liking. Hunting, soldiery, army. Didn't much care for that, which set him apart from a lot of his peers in this time. And that might have been another reason why he wanted to get out and build his own world where he could adjust himself. Neuschwanstein Castle was never completed. Many rooms remain empty to this day. The unfinished nature is visible even here in the richly decorated throne hall. So this is the throne room, but there is no throne. There is no throne. What's going on here? The throne, tragically, was one of the pieces that were never done when the king died. The royal family, they stopped investment right after the king died. Thought about what to do with it, made it a museum, but anything not yet started at this point was never done. They just finished up things. And one of the main things that are missing is the throne that should be standing up there. When you look left and right of the staircase, the 12 Apostles, six sainted kings above the platform where the throne would have been standing, and above them all then Jesus Christ pointing to Louis II's view of kingship sent by God to rule over certain people, not the kingship he experienced in his time, but the old kingship, the old idea. There's a big symbol for that too, kind of hidden in its meaning, but not to be overseen. You have a giant chandelier here in the center of the room weighing nearly a ton, made of gilded brass, 96 candles alone on that. It's modeled on the Byzantine imperial crown and is meant as a symbol for the old kings because the crown hangs between the cupola, sun and stars, heaven, and the mosaic floor, animals, plants, earth, showing where the old kings stood in their societies between their subject on earth and God in heaven. Ludwig's fairy tale castle is full of contradictions. On one hand, it was an escape from the present into an idealized middle ages. On the other hand, it was equipped with all the perks of the technical progress of its time. From the kitchen, a small pattered nostril lift brought food to the king. There was running water, warm water even, and a telephone line to the servants. And this is where he slept? This is where he slept. This is the king's bedroom. It's not a king-sized mattress then. It isn't, yes. It's a single bed though, you know. He was never married. He did have a fiancée in his youth, but they never married. So this was always intended as a place for one person that also makes the bed a bit smaller than it would have been. No wife, a fiancée back in the day, any love interests that we might know about today? He was very likely homosexual without living it out, because he was also very likely a true deep Catholic believer, which made him not a very happy person, I guess. So there's stories and were stories, but there's no real thing in the open. The fact that he had to hide that very substantial part of himself, do you think that contributed to him wanting to build this kind of fairytale world for him where he could hide from the real world? Might well be one of the aspects that led to that. Together though with all the other aspects that him not really having the power he liked to, not having a lot of friends or peers that he connected to, not liking the city just plain as that. He liked the countryside. So it's one aspect out of many aspects in my view that made him search for a place where he could build his own reality. One person Ludwig II felt close or kindred to, at least temporarily, was the composer Richard Wagner. It's noticeable all around, but mostly in the so-called singer's hall. The room in total is again a kind of stage set because the king here tried to rebuild the singer's hall of Wartburg Castle. Wartburg Castle, a famous medieval castle in Germany that appears in one of Richard Wagner's operas, Tannhäuser. So Ludwig II wanted to have a similar room for himself on his own castle. Again, this kind of dream world, right? Unfortunately, a dream world that he himself never really got to enjoy. He did spend only two months here. Before he was aged 40, he was declared insane and thus unfit to rule by a commission of the Bavarian government. Here's a tip for you. King Ludwig also had two other magnificent castles built. They too have recently been declared UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and both are open to the public. Shortly after construction began on Neuschwanstein, Ludwig had Schloss Linderhof built in the Ammergau Alps, a rather small Rococo-style castle. And then there is Schloss Herren-Chiemsee, a Baroque palace complex modeled after Versailles. The Hall of Mirrors is even two meters longer than the original in France. But back to Neuschwanstein, I absolutely have to show you the balcony. Yeah, as you said, that's exactly what I mean. That connection. I think the visit to Neuschwanstein is not complete if you can't appreciate the surroundings. Walk around the castle, come out here, enjoy that, spend some time in the surrounding landscape and enjoy. That was my day at Neuschwanstein already. So what is it that keeps enchanting people to this day? I think it's, of course, the beautiful scenery, the whimsical architecture, the dreamlike interiors, and maybe also, to some extent, that tragic, mysterious king behind it all. What about you? What did you like best?