Bavaria's Linderhof Palace awakens

Every year more than 400,000 visitors travel to the Ammergau Alps to visit King Ludwig II of Bavaria's favorite castle. The longer summer opening hours from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. came into effect on April 1. And from this weekend, the buildings scattered throughout the castle park, which make up the charm of the Alpine castle, will also be open again.

It is the smallest of the three castles Ludwig II had built. It was actually intended to be a replica of Versailles in the remoteness of the Ammergau Alps. But the area was simply too small. Instead, it became a Rococo-style castle - just for the monarch himself — his private refuge.

Ludwig's great role model — the French Sun King Louis XIV — inspired the design of the rooms. The result was a mix of French and Bavarian Rococo. The dining room is famous for its table, known as the "wishing table" after the table that sets itself in a Grimm fairy tale. The table could be lowered into the kitchen below by means of a crank mechanism — to be returned filled with culinary delights.

The palace has 50 hectares of parkland. The palace garden is laid out on several terraces in the Baroque and Renaissance style - meticulous yet playful, with water basins, fountains and pavilions. Linderhof also has a park landscape modeled on English landscape gardens. The king preferred to stroll alone through the extensive grounds.

Ludwig II had smaller buildings scattered all over the park, including exotic ones such as the Moorish Kiosk. The pavilion was originally built by a Berlin architect for the world exhibition in Paris in 1867. Ludwig II acquired it a few years later, had it renovated and erected in the northeast of the palace garden.

Inside, Ludwig II really made the most of his enthusiasm for the Orient. It was to be colorful and opulent. The peacock throne outdoes everything. It was manufactured according to the wishes of Ludwig II, also known as the fairy-tale king, in Paris and Munich in 1877. It is not the only luxury in the Moorish Kiosk. Ludwig also added a marble fountain.

Ludwig's greatest passion were the operas by Richard Wagner. At Linderhof he created walk-in stage sets for them. He spared neither cost nor effort, among other things he had an artificial stalactite cave built, at that time the largest structure of its kind. The entrance is perfectly camouflaged.

Inside it's very operatic! Here the melancholic king had Wagner arias performed at all times of the day and night. The artificial grotto with lake and waterfall represents the scenery of the first act of the Wagner opera "Tannhäuser". The Venus Grotto was reserved for him and his closest confidants. Currently the grotto can't be visited due to extensive resotration work.

A simple wooden hut houses the stage set for the first act of the "Valkyrie" from the "Ring of the Nibelungs ". Hunding's Hut originally stood far away from the castle in the Ammenwald, a favorite place of King Ludwig II. The hut burned to the ground twice and was rebuilt. In 1990, it finally moved to the east of the palace park, where it can now be visited.

As a teenager Ludwig often accompanied his father Maximilian II when he went hunting. In the Graswangtal, in the Allgäu region, they used this little house as a hunting lodge. Ludwig II had it moved later to build Linderhof Palace on the same site. Today the permanent exhibition "From the Lynder Court to the Palace" can be seen on the ground floor of the so-called Königshäuschen, or Royal Lodge.