The Fairy Tale King & his Castles (Part 1: Linderhof)

Ludwig II has many names.

Some call him “The Mad King”—he did manage to spend over 800 years of family fortune on building castles, on top of being known for his extreme reclusivity—but I prefer “The Fairy Tale King.” Rather than typical “kingly” activities of politics or entertaining, he spent his time building worlds that whisk you away to a world of past richness, dazzling artistry, and endless illusion.

King Ludwig II spent most of his time at Schloss Linderhof, the only of his palaces he lived to see completed.

Our tour met in the entryway, where our guide explained no photos were allowed (he came into to the room after I had taken the photos).

The statue is of French King Louis XIV, of whom Ludwig was a great admirer. Ludwig was perhaps Louis XIV’s greatest admirer. All over Linderhof palace are portraits, statues, and wall murals of Louis XIV and his court, none of whom he’d ever met (they’d died over 150 years before Ludwig was born). He even modeled some of the rooms after Louis XIV’s palace in Versailles.

Louis XIV was known as “The Sun King” and the ceiling in the entryway is an homage to that title. Ludwig referred to himself as “The Moon King” and was so shy, he lived a mostly nocturnal life, sleeping through the day and spending his evenings reading or writing.

The Palace is small when compared to other palaces or castles, but the intricacies are richer than most anything I’ve seen (see Schloss Neuschwanstein for more/similarly jaw-dropping scenes). Once you enter, the 4 main rooms of the palace are on the second floor and circle around the staircase.

There are 4 servants waiting rooms in between them as well where the servants would wait until Ludwig let them in to see him. They each have a color: lilac, pink, and blue with gilding, and yellow with silver gilding (the only room in the house with silver gilding, for contrast against the yellow paint).

The bed, sized like a California King, was built to fit his over 6ft frame. He was abnormally tall for the time period. The walls on either side of the bed have rich tapestry with gold, three-dimensional embroidery. The chandelier in the bedroom is made of bohemian glass from Austria and cannot be lowered. Before electricity was installed, servants had to climb ladders to light all the candles and clean it. Across the bed, there are two matching, but different mirrors at least 10 feet tall, surrounded by some of the most gorgeous ceramic detail framing it from floor to ceiling. An interesting detail is that there is a tiny fence thing around the bed, with a working door.

The ivory chandelier is in the Hall of Mirrors, my favorite room. There are mirrors on most of the wall space, creating an infinitely beautiful gilded illusion. I highly suggest you check out the palace photos on their website. Just click through the rooms on the map for pictures of the rich interior.

One more tidbit: in his dining room, he had a “Wishing Table” that could be hand cranked up/down to the first floor. Ludwig preferred to dine alone, and this allowed him to keep from seeing servants even as they set his table! The lowered table would be set with Ludwig’s meal, and then cranked up to the dining room where Ludwig would dine in the company of his portraits of Louis XIV and his court.

We were here in the winter season, so unfortunately for us, the other areas of Linderhof Park were closed, like the extravagant Venus Grotto (the largest man-made grotto that Ludwig fashioned to be his own a private theater), the Moroccan house, Moorish kiosk, Hunding’s Hut (complete with a huge indoor tree), and more, many built based on scenes from distant places, fantasy, or Richard Wagner’s plays. Ludwig was a huge fan and patron of Wagner and his work.

We’ve decided we must to return during spring some time in the future to see the rest of the grounds and the gardens in their full glory. For now, this was a wonderful introduction the the Fairy Tale King’s fantastic world.

P.S. If you’re planning on heading there soon, Venus Grotto just closed this past fall for renovation for the foreseeable future. Our tour guide said it may take 5 years or so to complete.

Logistics:

Linderhof Palace and Park are just a 1.5-2 hour train ride from Munich.

We took the train from Munich to Oberammergau (including one transfer), and then a local bus (9622) from the bus stop right outside the train station. It takes you all the way to the Schloss Linderhof. Just make sure to ask the bus driver when the last bus picks up from the grounds to the station—when we visited, the schedule printed on the bus stop included a later time that was not true on the day of our visit.

As far as cost, the Bayern ticket is the most efficient: a full-day ticket ticket for travel within Baveria, so it works round trip on both the train and bus rides! It starts at €23 for a 1-person ticket and only costs an addition €5 for each extra person (5 people max per ticket). You can buy a Bayern ticket at the train station from any kiosk at the train station and it’s valid starting at 9am M-F, or anytime on weekends/Bavarian holidays. It is even valid until 3am the following day, so you can really enjoy a full day of travel.