For more years than I like to count, the Bavarian Castle tapestry has hung in a prominent place in our home. In our first home, we hung it in the lounge room; in our second home, we hung it at the top of the internal staircase, the entry to our lounge room. Today, it hangs on the wall at the end of our home’s entrance foyer. You can’t miss it. For new guests to our home, it’s often the first topic of conversation.
How it all began
“I’d really like to have a go at that,” announced Tony, as we watched the old man patiently and methodically stitching the Bargello design on an open-weave canvas. The man who had our attention was sitting on an outdoor folding chair in front of his caravan, with the needlework canvas tightly stretched on a wooden frame and stand in front of him.
“Well, why don’t you?” I replied.
“Yes, I will. I think I could do it.”
It was August. My husband Tony, a teacher, had two weeks’ holiday. In those days, the Queensland school year was divided into three terms, with school holiday breaks in May and August. Along with our 2-year-old daughter, Tony and I were holidaying in northern New South Wales, near Mount Warning and the Wollumbin National Park.
It was during this holiday that I became aware I was pregnant with our second child.
We stayed at the Wollumbin Caravan Park. Our caravan was parked next door to the old man’s van, so we saw him every day and Tony and I got to know him. You couldn’t help but notice, but he had just one leg. He used crutches to get around. He told us that he took up needlework after he lost his leg. “It is something I can do,” he said. “I find it really satisfying and it doesn’t depend on my mobility (or lack thereof).”
From the old man we learnt about different kinds of needlepoint embroidery: counted thread work, Bargello (or Florentine work) and tent stitch (including half cross stitch and petit point). Tony was totally enthralled. He decided that he would have a go at half cross stitch, starting with something simple.
During our holiday at Wollumbin, Tony and I took a day trip to the Gold Coast, where we visited the Pacific Fair Shopping Centre at Broadbeach. There Tony purchased his first tapestry canvas. It depicted a castle and bore the title “Bavarian Castle”. We loved the design and colours imprinted on the canvas. We agreed it was a great find. Tony purchased all the materials he needed to get started – wool, needles and a simple timber frame on which to fasten the canvas.
The Bavarian Castle project
The Bavarian Castle was Tony’s first major needlework project. It was not small – the canvas measured 55 cm x 44 cm (21.5 in x 17.5 in). However, before he commenced this significant project, he practised on two small canvases, one a horse, the other a duck. Once he completed these “child” pieces successfully, he felt confident enough to tackle the castle.
Tony worked on the castle almost every evening after dinner. He found needlework relaxing. Following many a stressful day at school (he was a high school teacher), after completing his lesson preparation for the following day, he turned to his needlepoint work. At a rate of approximately three square inches per hour, it took Tony three months to complete the Bavarian Castle project.
We had the tapestry framed professionally. It looked amazing. We hung it in the living room of our home, where it took pride of place.
Our second child, a boy, was born a month or so after Tony completed the tapestry.
I think Tony and I discovered the legend of our Bavarian Castle some years later. (In those days, one didn’t have the internet, Google or Wikipedia.) We knew from the start that the tapestry depicted Germany’s Schloss Neuschwanstein. In English, that is “New Swan Stone Castle”.
Schloss Neuschwanstein is a famous fairy-tale like castle located high up on a ridge above the village of Hohenschwangau, near Füssen, in southern Bavaria. Bavaria is Germany’s largest and southern-most State. We learnt that Neuschwanstein is the most-photographed castle and one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world.
A special postcard
Many years passed. During a holiday in Germany, our son visited the Bavarian Alps. The Alps border southern Bavaria and the Austrian State of Tirol. From Füssen, he sent Tony and me a postcard of Königsschloss Neuschwanstein (“Royal Castle Neuschwanstein”). On it, he wrote:
We still have this postcard – I framed it and it stands on a display shelf in the entry foyer of our home, within view of the castle tapestry.
About a year later, our son met a young German woman who (as it turned out) was destined to become his wife. Little did we know then, but our daughter-in-law grew up in a tiny village linked historically to the fascinating but tragic story of Bavaria’s King Ludwig II.
King Ludwig II of Bavaria masterminded and built the castle depicted in our Bavarian Castle tapestry. But, as Tony and I were yet to discover, it was not the only castle he built.
Our first visit to Bavaria
A little more than 30 years after Tony completed the Bavarian Castle needlework project, Tony and I visited Bavaria (read Easter in Germany: Bavaria). We travelled there to meet and spend time with the family of our son’s fiancé. During our stay with them, they took us sightseeing.
We visited many beautiful Bavarian royal palaces, castles and churches, which we jokingly called “Schlossing and Kirching”. Schloss is German for palace or castle; Kirche is German for church. We visited Schloss Nymphenburg (Munich), Schloss Herrenchiemsee (Herreninsel, Lake Chiemsee), Schloss Linderhof (southern Bavaria, near Oberammergau), Schloss Neuschwanstein (near Füssen, also in southern Bavaria), and countless number of magnificent church buildings.
Of the four castles we visited, King Ludwig II built three of them. Schloss Nymphenburg (“Nymphenburg Palace”) is the exception. It dates from the mid-17th century. Ludwig II was born there on 25 August 1845. During our visit to the palace, I took the following photograph of the “Green Salon” in which Ludwig and his brother Otto were born. (Visitors were allowed to take photographs inside the palace.)
The infant was baptised the next day in the Steinerner Saal (“Great Hall”) of Nymphenburg Palace. His parents, Crown Prince Maximilian and Princess Marie of Prussia, named him Otto Ludwig Friedrich Wilhelm after his three godfathers. While his parents wanted to call their son “Otto”, his grandfather King Ludwig I insisted on the name “Ludwig”, as his grandson was born on the feast day of Saint Louis (“Ludwig” in German), which also happened to be his own birthday.
After Ludwig I abdicated in 1848, his son Maximilian came to the throne. Maximilian II reigned as King of Bavaria from 1848 to 1864.
Ludwig II was just 18 years of age when, in 1864, his father Maximilian died suddenly and Ludwig became king. However, Ludwig II’s reign as sovereign ruler of Bavaria was short-lived. In 1866, after Bavaria sided with Austria and lost the Austro-Prussian War to Prussia, Bavaria came under Prussian rule. From that time onwards, Ludwig II was effectively King of Bavaria in name only, a puppet king.
Thus, beginning in 1867-68, Ludwig II diverted his time and energy into his artistic endeavours and commenced an extravagant building program.
King Ludwig II’s three Bavarian castles
Among the buildings Ludwig II commissioned are three castles: Neues Schloss Herrenchiemsee (“Herrenchiemsee New Palace”), Schloss Linderhof (“Linderhof Palace”) and Schloss Neuschwanstein (“Neuschwanstein Castle”). During our stay in Bavaria on that first occasion, Tony and I visited all three of Ludwig II’s castles, in that order.
Herrenchiemsee
The first castle we visited, Herrenchiemsee New Palace, is in fact the last and most extravagant of King Ludwig II’s major building projects. The castle is located on Herreninsel, one of three main islands in Chiemsee, Bavaria’s largest lake. The lake is about 70 kilometres by road southeast of Munich. We travelled by car from Munich to Prien am Chiemsee, a little town by the lake, and from there we took a ferry to the island.
The island Herreninsel once housed a Benedictine Abbey (established in the 8th century), followed by an Augustine Monastery (from the 13th century). The monastery closed in the early 19th century. In 1873 Ludwig II bought the island. He converted some of the rooms of the former monastery building for his private use. This building was later called the “Old Palace”.
Ludwig II drew up plans for a palace on Herreninsel long before construction began in 1878. He intended his “New Palace”, Herrenchiemsee, to be a copy of Versailles Palace, in honour of the Sun King, Louis XIV of France, whom Ludwig II idolised. It was an enormous project. The king wanted the main rooms in his “New Palace” to be more splendidly furnished than those in Versailles. And he succeeded.
For example, the State Bedroom with its 3.0 by 2.6 metre bed was more luxurious than its French counterpart. And, to surpass Versailles, Ludwig had his almost 100-metre-long Mirror Gallery lit by more than 1800 candles! Every room we saw was highly decorated with expensive materials and much gold (about 5 kg of fine gold leaf).
The cost of construction of Herrenchiemsee New Palace exceeded that of Neuschwanstein and Linderhof put together. As it was his last major building project, and so extravagant, Ludwig II ran out of money. The building was never completed. The king never lived there. Not that he ever intended to do so. He built it purely as a monument to absolute monarchy – it had no practical function.
The surrounding park, also modelled on Versailles, like the palace itself, was still under construction at the time of Ludwig II’s death in 1886. Only the central axis with its fantastic fountains, and the core of the palace, had been completed.
Linderhof
A few days later, our Bavarian hosts took us to see another one of Ludwig II’s castles, Linderhof Palace. The so-called “Royal Villa”, built between 1869 and 1878, is the only one of Ludwig II’s three castles he completed and made his home. He resided there for 8 years, about half of the time, for two weeks every month. Linderhof was his retreat. Ludwig II was a shy man who liked to be alone. Despite his status as constitutional monarch, he shunned public life.
Linderhof Palace, relatively small in comparison with Ludwig II’s other two castles, is set in a beautifully landscaped park which houses several small exotic buildings (such as the Moroccan House and Moorish Kiosk). The complex is located about 100 kilometres by road south of Munich, and 14 kilometres by road from the town of Oberammergau.
The king’s inspiration for Linderhof were the small summer palaces of 18th century France. Behind the richly ornamented Baroque façade, Ludwig II lived in a world of opulence. He decorated the rooms in a Rococo (High Baroque) revival style, with lavish gold, gleaming mirrors, real Italian marble, velvet and silk, crystal chandeliers and expensive porcelain objects. All of the rooms contain paintings and portraits of the French royal family. We saw nothing depicting Ludwig II himself, apart from the Bavarian crest.
The palace park combines elements of French Baroque and English landscape gardens. Its design includes a central pool, terraces, waterfall, elaborate fountains and geometric flower beds. Its two focal points are the pavilion and the Venus Temple.
Our visit to Linderhof took place in early April. The weather was cool and foggy. There was a lot of old snow in the grounds near the palace. The fountains were working, but most of the statues and plants in the park still bore their winter covering.
After our tour of the palace proper, we walked through the park to take a look at the Moroccan House and Moorish Kiosk (two examples of the King’s interest in all things oriental).
Our ticket included a visit to the Venus Grotto, an artificial cave, one of Ludwig II’s outlandish inventions. The grotto pays homage to Richard Wagner’s opera “Tannhäuser”, with paintings of scenes from Act I of the opera on “stage” at the end of an artificial lake or pond. Lighting (red, green, pink, blue) is used to create different moods. The grotto is heated and has had an electricity supply since 1881. Ludwig II’s design, coupled with his use of technology, produced visual and sound effects well ahead of their time.
King Ludwig II’s “New Castle”
We visited the third and most famous of King Ludwig II’s castles (Neuschwanstein) that same day. By “we”, I mean Tony and me, our son, his fiancé and her father.
After first calling in at the UNESCO listed Wieskirche at Steingaden, and taking a lunch break, we drove south through the mountains and the fog to Hohenschwangau, a little tourist village near the Austrian border and the township of Füssen.
It was April – not the peak tourist season – but there were tourists everywhere! We left our car in the visitor parking lot and walked the short distance to the ticket office to buy tickets for our tour of Neuschwanstein Castle.
Actually, there are two castles at Hohenschwangau, on opposite hills: Schloss Neuschwanstein (“Neuschwanstein Castle”) and Schloss Hohenschwangau (“Hohenschwangau Castle”). Both are open to the public.
King Ludwig II’s father, Maximilian II, built the “new” Hohenschwangau Castle over the ruins of a 12th century castle that once graced the site. Commencing in 1832 Maximilian rebuilt Hohenschwangau Castle according to the plans of the original castle. The “new” Gothic-style castle became the summer residence of the royal family. Ludwig spent a large part of his childhood here.
During his stays at Hohenschwangau Castle, Ludwig II developed a passion for the Middle Ages. He learnt about the period by studying the legends and history depicted in the castle murals and by reading widely. Always interested in art, music and architecture, Ludwig became obsessed with everything medieval. In 1861, at age 16, he encountered the musical dramas of Richard Wagner. From that time onwards, Wagner’s music and the medieval sagas they depicted had a powerful influence on the young prince.
We hadn’t included a tour of Hohenschwangau Castle in our itinerary. Our quest was to see the castles that Ludwig II built. And Hohenschwangau Castle was not one of them. We were there to see Neuschwanstein, our so-called “Bavarian Castle”.
Ludwig II long dreamed of building a “New Castle” at Hohenschwangau. In 1867 he visited the medieval Wartburg Castle at Eisenach (Thuringia, Germany), and had his architect make drawings of its ornamentation.
Construction of the “New Castle” commenced in 1868. The king chose to build it on a high ridge opposite Hohenschwangau Castle with the mountains as a backdrop. He wanted his “New Castle” at Hohenschwangau to be bigger and better and higher than the one his father built. Today, it is certainly more famous!
The king may have built his so-called “New Castle” as a monument to German medieval culture and kingship, but he also intended it to be his private residence. At first, he lived in the castle’s Gateway Building, which was completed in 1873. His private rooms were not ready until 1884 and he occupied them only briefly prior to his death in 1886. Sadly, Ludwig’s “New Castle” was never completed, and the king never saw the building without scaffolding.
After Ludwig II’s death on 13 June 1886, the authorities gave the castle the name “Neuschwanstein” and, from 1 August 1886, they opened it to the public.
I’m sure this is not what the late king would have wanted.
Neuschwanstein
The ticket office attendant told us that, to reach Neuschwanstein Castle, we had to negotiate a fairly steep hill. We had two options: take a horse-drawn carriage or walk. We chose to walk. It took the five of us about 30 minutes to reach the castle entrance.
The castle was enveloped in fog, but it still looked pretty. We took lots of photographs of the exterior of the castle and its surrounds, knowing that we would not be allowed to take photographs once we went inside.
At the entrance to the castle, we joined the large crowd of people waiting for the next tour to begin. When our tour guide made herself known, she invited about 40 of us to join her group. We were glad our visit wasn’t in summer (the peak tourist season), as tour groups then consist of up to 60 people, with tours commencing every 5 minutes! During summer, the castle is open 10 hours per day. Our tour guide told us that, on average, 2,400,000 people visit Neuschwanstein each year. And that was the figure more than a decade ago!
From the ground floor, we followed our guide up the circular staircases of the towers to the third floor. Here we entered the Throne Room. Interestingly, the room contains no throne, and it was never used.
Throne Room
Ludwig II had the Throne Room modelled on the Court Church of All Saints which his grandfather King Ludwig I built in the Munich Residence. The magnificent blue and gold church-like hall is fifteen metres high and extends through two floors (the third and fourth). Our guide told us that the king ensured its structural integrity by use of a steel frame as in modern functional buildings.
For Ludwig II, the Throne Room represented a version of the legendary Grail Hall as described by medieval poets, a glorification of Christian kingship. At one end of the room a set of marble stairs leads to a raised platform (on which the throne would have been placed). The wall paintings at this end of the room are dedicated to the King of Kings (Jesus Christ), the twelve apostles (six on each side of the Christ) and six canonised kings. At the other end of the room, there is a painting of St George (the Defender of the King). The paintings on the side walls feature other kings and their deeds.
The blue cupola (small dome) above is decorated with stars and the mosaic floor below features plants and animals. The intricate and beautiful floor mosaic is composed of one million pieces and took two years to complete.
Ludwig II’s private apartments
On leaving the awe-inspiring Throne Room, we entered Ludwig II’s private apartments. We saw the king’s bedroom, private chapel, dressing room, sitting room, grotto, study and meeting room.
In my opinion, these rooms reflected the king’s personality more than his private rooms in Herrenchiemsee New Palace or Linderhof Palace. They were furnished in medieval style, with lots of Gothic influences and Wagnerian operatic paintings, but also many personal touches. For example, the king’s personal coat of arms is prominent throughout.
At Neuschwanstein, we saw many instances of Ludwig II’s fascination with swans. Like his father before him, Ludwig II regarded himself as a successor to the medieval Knights of Schwangau, who chose the swan as their heraldic animal. Swans featured everywhere. For example, swans are embroidered on the covers and curtains in the king’s bedroom and sitting room and feature largely on the washstand in the king’s bedroom.
Singers’ Hall
From the king’s apartments, our tour guide hurried us on to the fourth floor and the spectacular Singers’ Hall. After the Throne Room, Ludwig II considered this the most important room in the castle. Ludwig II designed the hall as a combination of two historical rooms of Wartburg Castle (Festival Hall and Singers’ Hall). He intended to use the hall for private performances only. However, the king never used it, as it was completed just one week before his death. What I remember most about this room is its size and its magnificent timber ceiling.
Kitchen and end of the tour
Our tour of the castle ended in the kitchen and associated rooms, located on the ground floor. The king made sure the kitchen was equipped with the latest technology available at the time. Indeed, throughout the castle, we saw examples of Ludwig II’s use of “modern” technology (heating, intercom, flushed toilet).
After the tour, the five of us walked back down the hill to the carpark. I recall my head spinning with all that I had seen and heard. It was almost too much to take in. But at least Tony and I knew much more about our Bavarian Castle and its owner-builder.
King Ludwig II memorial
During our first visit to Bavaria, Tony and I stayed for some of the time at a little village near Lake Starnberg, southwest of Munich. Our daughter-in-law and her family once lived there. Much to our surprise, we discovered that the village is not far from the place where King Ludwig II died.
I remember one visitor to our home many years ago, when speaking about our Bavarian Castle tapestry, saying: “The man who built that castle was mad. Legend has it that he jumped into a nearby lake and drowned.” It’s true that some people claim that King Ludwig II was insane (he is sometimes dubbed the “Mad King”), but our visitor’s account of the king’s death was not accurate.
Despite being heavily in debt, Ludwig II kept taking out more loans to fund his expensive building projects. When the banks threatened to seize his property, the government stepped in. After four medical “experts” certified the king insane and declared him unfit to rule, on 10 June 1886 the government deposed him.
On 12 June, Ludwig II was taken (against his will) from Neuschwanstein to Berg Palace. One of the consulting psychiatrists, Dr Bernhard von Gudden, accompanied the king. In the evening of the next day, 13 June 1886, officials found the king’s body, along with that of his psychiatrist, in shallow water in Lake Starnberg, not far from Berg Palace. To this day, no one knows exactly how they died.
During our stay at the little village by Lake Starnberg, our Bavarian hosts showed Tony and me the place where King Ludwig II supposedly died. A cross marks the spot in Lake Starnberg where his body was found.
On the shore, high up above the site, there is a memorial to the late king. Construction of the “Votive Chapel” commenced in 1896, 10 years after the king’s death. The chapel was dedicated on 13 June 1903, the 17th anniversary of King Ludwig II’s death. Every year on the 13 June, the anniversary of Ludwig II’s death, a memorial service is held in the chapel. I believe that this beautiful building is a fitting tribute to the late king. After all, he was an avid builder himself!
The surprising connection
All those years ago, when Tony chose the Bavarian Castle as his first major needlework project, before the birth of our second child, little did Tony and I realise just how special that tapestry would turn out to be. Because of it, over the years, we have learnt a lot about Bavarian history, King Ludwig II of Bavaria and Ludwig II’s three Bavarian castles.
But much more than that, Tony and I now have a personal connection with Bavaria, and the legend of King Ludwig II, through our son’s wife and her family.
How amazing is that!
REFERENCES
King Ludwig II of Bavaria – Life, Legacy, Legend (Exhibition). https://www.bavarikon.de/object/bav:BSB-CMS-0000000000006788?lang=en
Steinberg, R., Falkai, P. Was King Ludwig II of Bavaria misdiagnosed by Gudden and his colleagues? Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 271, 799–807 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-020-01161-8
This is an amazing story, Judy, well written and illustrated as usual. Tony’s tapestry work is magnificent too.
Bev, thank you so much for your response and your kind words re the story and Tony’s needlework. You may be surprised to know that he went on to produce many more wonderful tapestries. With the exception of the castle and one other, we had them framed and gave them to family members or friends as gifts.
Thanks again Judy for a great lesson in history and an interesting read. Loved the photos.
It never ceases to amaze me when I see all those magnificent buildings still standing proudly in the 21st century and remember that they were all built without the modern machines and tools we have today. What wonderful gifts of craftsmanship the builders possessed. King Ludwig ll might have been deep in debt but what a legacy he has left behind for the world to see!
Now to do a tapestry of the other castles Tony!.
Dear Betty. How lovely to read your response to my latest story. I’m glad you found it informative and interesting. The photos are important – I agree. And yes, these buildings are truly remarkable, considering they were constructed without modern building equipment/machinery. Re Tony doing another castle tapestry – I will pass on your advice to him (tongue in cheek). My warmest wishes, Judy.