Perched on the rugged Bavarian Hills in picturesque Southern Germany the Neuschwanstein Castle, a 19th century Romanesque Revival Palace plays ode to Wagner and his marvelous compositions. The castle was commissioned of Ludwig II of Bavaria and built largely out of a personal fund. Built on a steep hill and surrounded by other castles in the arena the Neuschwanstein castle looks down into the charming village of Hohenschwangau that is a long train journey out of Munich and is very proverbially, frozen music.

Built in the the architectural style of castle Romanticism the palace takes enthusiastic ques from the operas of Richard Wagner, precisely the operas Tannhäuser and Lohengrin that had made a lasting impression on the mighty prince. The palace today strikes a might impression on the average tourists and the architecturally inclined alike. Photographed in different light the palace makes a pretty picture every time! Rain, show or shine. Like most great architecture the palace is not completely finished and is testimony to even grander plans.

Marking a highly stylistic effect, the Neuschwanstein castle was largely a labor of love, with deep and stubborn inputs by the king. Ludwig was extremely clear in his objectives having inscribed his words of wanting and having a medieval castle deeply encrypted on the palace walls. He was so charmed by Wagner’s compositions and had every room in the palace follow a Wagner theme. The art work, the composition, the litany, the punctuation, the injunctions, the spaces, the drama created in the palace are largely an ode to the musician. The palace is literally a Wagner recital structured and fashioned in red bricks and yellow limestone.

When Goethe said, ‘Music is liquid architecture and Architecture is frozen music’  he might as well have meant half a dozen architectural monuments across the world but most likely he meant this very one!

Like a Wagner recital, the palace is best enjoyed with a nip in the air.