Bavaria’s Mad King Ludwig Liked Building Fairy Castles
Ludwig II, or “Mad King Ludwig” (1845 – 1886), reigned in Bavaria from 1864 to 1886. A generous patron of the arts, he was a benefactor of the composer Richard Wagner. During his reign, he devoted himself to artistic and architectural projects, and his biggest hobby was building opulent fairy tale castles. He ended up bankrupting himself with their construction costs.
The Mad King withdrew from governance after Bavaria joined the German Empire in 1871, and showed little interest from then on in affairs of state. Instead, he went into a morbid seclusion and devoted himself wholly to the arts. He could not get enough of the theater and the opera, particularly the works of Richard Wagner, whose lifelong benefactor and patron he became.
Ludwig’s greatest and costliest hobby, however, was building palaces and castles in the Bavarian mountains. He started with the Linderhoff Palace, built between 1869 to 1878. Simultaneously, he commenced construction of his most famous project, Neuschwanstein, a fairy tale castle precariously situated on a crag and decorated with scenes from Wagner’s operas. Built from 1869 to 1886, it was the inspiration for Disneyland’s Sleeping Beauty Castle. While that one was being built, the Mad King began an even greater project in 1878, the Herrenchiemsee Palace, a copy of Versailles. It was never completed, because Ludwig went bankrupt.
Between abandonment of his official duties, profligate spending on expensive hobbies, and withdrawal into the life of a recluse among other bizarre behavior, Ludwig’s ministers finally had enough. In 1886, he was declared insane, and sent to a remote palace. Three days later, he drowned himself in a lake, and took his psychiatrist with him.