The morning was overcast and thunderstorms are expected by early afternoon. We were happy to be getting out early. Off to Hohenschwangau for the last castle tour.
The castle (and town) are named for the legend of the knight of the holy grail who is sent in a boat pulled by swans to rescue a maiden who could never ask his identity. Wagner used the legend in his opera called “ Lohengrin”.
Richard did not make a Relive video for the day.
Since we covered the basic history of Maximilian II and Ludwig II in the Saturday post, we’ll try to share some of the trivia we learned from our very good tour guide for the Hohenschwangau Castle.
She shared sympathy for Marie, who married Maximilian in 1842 when she was 16 and he was 31. Marie was from Prussia, a long way from her family. It was an arranged marriage with not much love, as the Queen lived on one floor and the King lived on the floor above. The King had a secret passageway to the Queen’s bedroom which our guide said they must have used at least twice. The King was known to bring in his own ladies.
The servants had big jobs handling the requirements of the King and Queen. The Queen’s floor had no closet space, so her wardrobe had to be kept on the floor above the King’s floor. Any time she wished to change clothes (usually 5 to 6 times a day) her servants needed to carry choices down to the Queen’s quarters for her choice, then take the rejected dresses back upstairs. The Queen did have a special outfit made for hiking, with pants under a skirt. However, she was not allowed to remove the skirt until she was at least 1000 feet from the castle.
The King enjoyed reading and had a special room for him to enjoy. He did not want to be read to, but also did not want to be bothered to turn the page. Servants had to stand by ready to respond to his signal that he wanted them to turn the page.
The castle had some modern heating, but each room also had a large tile stove for heat. However, the the King and Queen did not want dirty smoke to soil their quarters, nor did they want to be present when the servants stoked the stoves. There were special covert doors in central passages to each stove, so servants could enter and keep the stoves operating. Sometimes they would back out with blackened faces.
This castle had many priceless gifts and furnishings that belong to the Wittelsbach family. After Ludwig II was deposed, and Otto became ruler for only a short time, then Ludwig’s nephew, Luitpold did not take the title of King but called himself the Regent. He and his family were outspoken opponents of the Nazis and were actually incarcerated as prisoners of the Nazis.
Our tour guide admitted the difficulties when Wittelsbach family members still come to visit. She said they still expected to be addressed by their Bavarian titles, and she had to be particularly careful with what she could say.
2 Responses
You must have done a tremendous amount of research before this trip. You seem to be seeing and having so many “highlight” experiences. Hope the rain isn’t too bad today and you have another wonderful day of safe adventures.
Dan
Life is full of highlight experiences. We have researched but sometimes there can be surprises. It’s all wonderful.