Germany’s Stunning Fairytale Castles Added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List
Built under the rule of Ludwig II, the grand palace complexes in Bavaria were among 26 new sites granted world heritage status
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Germany’s storybook castles are now UNESCO World Heritage sites. The royal castles of Neuschwanstein, Linderhof, Schachen and Herrenchiemsee have been added to the prestigious list, which includes more than 1,200 sites.
Neuschwanstein Castle, located near the village of Schwangau in Bavaria, is one of Germany’s most popular tourist sites. Every year, roughly 1.4 million travelers visit the site, reports Reuters’ John Revill. In the 1950s, Walt Disney was purportedly so inspired by Ludwig II’s grand palace that he modeled Sleeping Beauty’s castle after it.
In addition to Neuschwanstein Castle, the UNESCO designation also applies to three other palaces in Bavaria. All were built under Ludwig’s rule, which lasted from 1864 to 1886, though Neuschwanstein was never completed.
Quick fact: Ludwig II’s lavish building projects
The Bavarian king was known for his intense focus on artistic pursuits and elaborate construction initiatives, which he prioritized over political matters.
Ludwig used the four castles as “personal retreats and imaginative escapes,” taking design inspiration from the Wartburg Castle in Germany, the Palace of Versailles in France, German fairytales and the operas of German composer Richard Wagner, according to UNESCO.
Neuschwanstein featured many modern innovations, including flushing toilets, an internal telephone system and central heating, per the castle’s website.
After Ludwig died in 1886, the sites were opened to the public. Today, they continue to be accessible to visitors as museums and cultural landmarks.
Efforts have been underway to get the castles included on UNESCO’s World Heritage list for nearly two decades, per the London Times’ David Crossland. The Throne Hall inside Neuschwanstein Castle recently underwent a five-year renovation that cost roughly $23 million.
“For our fairytale castles, a fairytale comes true,” says Markus Soeder, a German politician representing Bavaria, in a statement shared with Reuters.
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Members of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee voted to add more than two dozen sites to the list during the group’s July meeting in Paris. Other new inductees include mysterious granite megaliths in Brittany, France, and petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream in South Korea.
The West African nation of Sierra Leone gained its first-ever UNESCO World Heritage site with the inclusion of its Gola Rainforest National Park and the Tiwai Island Wildlife Sanctuary. Together, the two locations form a “biodiversity hotspot” that’s home to more than 1,000 plant species, 55 mammal species and 448 bird species, per UNESCO.
Measuring just 4.5 square miles, Tiwai Island alone is home to 11 species of primates, including the endangered Diana monkey.
“I feel very happy, relieved, hopeful,” says Tommy Garnett, the 66-year-old activist and environmentalist who spearheaded the UNESCO push for Tiwai Island, to Lucie Peytermann and Saidu Bah of Agence France-Presse.
