1 00:00:03,400 --> 00:00:05,820 Bavaria. 2 00:00:06,440 --> 00:00:09,660 The soul of Germany. 3 00:00:10,700 --> 00:00:14,060 Its romance, its culture, its sense of history... 4 00:00:15,820 --> 00:00:19,260 ..even its food and drink, define the image of the nation. 5 00:00:21,980 --> 00:00:24,940 And much of it is down to the legacy of one man. 6 00:00:30,420 --> 00:00:34,980 Ludwig II of Bavaria is a legendary figure. 7 00:00:34,980 --> 00:00:38,740 The handsome boy-king, loved by his people, 8 00:00:38,740 --> 00:00:44,820 betrayed by his ministers and found dead in mysterious circumstances. 9 00:00:50,340 --> 00:00:53,460 A monarch obsessed by beauty 10 00:00:53,460 --> 00:00:55,620 and heroic legend... 11 00:00:59,140 --> 00:01:02,180 ..who sacrificed everything for his art. 12 00:01:11,220 --> 00:01:15,620 Even today, his castles and palaces are the most fantastical 13 00:01:15,620 --> 00:01:19,860 examples of Romantic architecture anywhere in the world. 14 00:01:30,060 --> 00:01:33,380 Nowhere have history, illusion, artifice 15 00:01:33,380 --> 00:01:38,820 and reality combined to create such visually powerful buildings. 16 00:01:44,060 --> 00:01:46,260 And all of them are windows into the soul 17 00:01:46,260 --> 00:01:48,340 of their extraordinary creator... 18 00:01:49,460 --> 00:01:52,460 ..Ludwig II, the dream king. 19 00:02:14,420 --> 00:02:19,100 Our story begins here, in the mountains of Southern Bavaria. 20 00:02:24,860 --> 00:02:29,020 Hohenschwangau Castle sits high above Lake Alpsee. 21 00:02:32,700 --> 00:02:36,340 It was here that the young Prince Ludwig grew up. 22 00:02:38,060 --> 00:02:40,420 An enchanted landscape, 23 00:02:40,420 --> 00:02:45,380 providing the perfect backdrop for a flourish of Gothic fantasy. 24 00:02:47,340 --> 00:02:52,940 For Ludwig, a shy child with a vivid imagination, 25 00:02:52,940 --> 00:02:57,020 the castle represented a wonderful refuge, 26 00:02:57,020 --> 00:02:59,100 escape from the conventions and bustle 27 00:02:59,100 --> 00:03:02,700 of court life in Munich. 28 00:03:02,700 --> 00:03:09,460 It, and this wonderful landscape, captivated his imagination, 29 00:03:09,460 --> 00:03:14,580 ignited an obsession for the past and, in many ways, 30 00:03:14,580 --> 00:03:18,420 defined his life and the fate of his kingdom. 31 00:03:22,780 --> 00:03:26,780 Ludwig's father, Maximilian, had built the castle in the 1830s, 32 00:03:26,780 --> 00:03:30,140 on the site of a medieval ruin. 33 00:03:30,140 --> 00:03:34,500 He spent much of the year here with his Prussian-born wife, Marie, 34 00:03:34,500 --> 00:03:38,300 and his two young sons, Ludwig and Otto. 35 00:03:41,740 --> 00:03:44,300 Ludwig was a dreamy child. 36 00:03:44,300 --> 00:03:48,540 He loved stories and art, dressing up and make-believe. 37 00:03:50,540 --> 00:03:53,300 For most children, this is an obsession 38 00:03:53,300 --> 00:03:56,180 that begins and ends at the dressing-up box. 39 00:03:58,380 --> 00:04:02,060 But for Ludwig, it was his whole world. 40 00:04:05,140 --> 00:04:08,060 Ludwig's father decorated the walls of the castle 41 00:04:08,060 --> 00:04:11,420 with scenes of ancient chivalry and combat. 42 00:04:13,460 --> 00:04:17,100 It was a very particular vision of German legend. 43 00:04:21,300 --> 00:04:24,940 Maximilian called this his Hall Of Heroes. 44 00:04:31,300 --> 00:04:33,900 These are scenes that Ludwig grew up with, 45 00:04:33,900 --> 00:04:37,620 highly romanticised images of medieval life - 46 00:04:37,620 --> 00:04:40,220 knights, castles, chivalry. 47 00:04:40,220 --> 00:04:44,540 Every room in this castle fed his imagination. 48 00:04:44,540 --> 00:04:49,780 You can see here, the seeds of his later obsessions. 49 00:05:11,780 --> 00:05:16,260 But romantic though they are, the paintings at Hohenschwangau 50 00:05:16,260 --> 00:05:19,020 carried an important political message. 51 00:05:24,780 --> 00:05:29,380 In the mid-19th century, there was no single German nation, 52 00:05:29,380 --> 00:05:32,460 just a group of princely states and dukedoms. 53 00:05:32,460 --> 00:05:35,220 Two of the largest were Prussia and Bavaria. 54 00:05:37,020 --> 00:05:41,260 Though independent, these states had a shared culture and language 55 00:05:41,260 --> 00:05:45,460 and there was a growing mood among their people for unification. 56 00:05:46,980 --> 00:05:48,820 But which princely state would determine 57 00:05:48,820 --> 00:05:50,940 the nature of the new Germany? 58 00:05:56,980 --> 00:06:03,260 The castle curator understands the message of Hohenschwangau 59 00:06:03,260 --> 00:06:05,140 better than most. 60 00:06:05,140 --> 00:06:08,060 It's a hymn to Bavaria's artistic dominance. 61 00:06:08,060 --> 00:06:12,620 Bavaria was really the cultural heart of Germany, 62 00:06:12,620 --> 00:06:15,980 so Maximilian saw it this way, the Bavarians saw it this way. 63 00:06:15,980 --> 00:06:18,860 They had their history over centuries. 64 00:06:18,860 --> 00:06:22,380 And that's why Maximilian wanted to show his history, 65 00:06:22,380 --> 00:06:24,980 the history of Bavaria, of his family. 66 00:06:24,980 --> 00:06:29,300 He wanted to have kind of picture book, a history picture book. 67 00:06:29,300 --> 00:06:33,340 He was very interested to teach his people here. 68 00:06:33,340 --> 00:06:37,100 So the paintings tell historical stories about Bavaria, 69 00:06:37,100 --> 00:06:43,100 about the family, about its great history as rulers in this area. 70 00:06:43,100 --> 00:06:46,460 Also, there are myths and legends. 71 00:06:46,460 --> 00:06:51,300 After centuries, where all these myths were forgotten, 72 00:06:51,300 --> 00:06:54,660 they were collecting them again. 73 00:06:54,660 --> 00:06:56,660 Well, that's the Brothers Grimm, of course, 74 00:06:56,660 --> 00:06:59,500 who are involved in this creation of this interior scheme. 75 00:06:59,500 --> 00:07:03,540 And the Brothers Grimm and some others were very involved, 76 00:07:03,540 --> 00:07:08,980 they were searching for the myths of the old Germans, 77 00:07:08,980 --> 00:07:13,380 they were collecting these sagas and fairy tales, 78 00:07:13,380 --> 00:07:18,300 so this was a renaissance of German identity. 79 00:07:31,860 --> 00:07:36,500 One room more than any other would captivate the young Ludwig. 80 00:07:42,740 --> 00:07:48,900 This is the Hall Of The Swan Knight. It tells the story of Lohengrin. 81 00:07:48,900 --> 00:07:55,820 Now, according to legend, Lohengrin, a Grail knight, left his family, 82 00:07:55,820 --> 00:07:58,420 shown in this painting here, 83 00:07:58,420 --> 00:08:03,140 and stepped into a small craft pulled by a single white swan 84 00:08:03,140 --> 00:08:08,220 and then was taken away to save a damsel in distress. 85 00:08:11,940 --> 00:08:15,460 For Ludwig's father, the greatest heroes of the past 86 00:08:15,460 --> 00:08:17,820 were the Knights Of Schwangau, 87 00:08:17,820 --> 00:08:21,500 literally translating as the Knights Of The Swan. 88 00:08:24,500 --> 00:08:27,740 The swan appears again and again throughout the castle 89 00:08:27,740 --> 00:08:30,100 and, as a symbol of the idyllic hero, 90 00:08:30,100 --> 00:08:34,460 was the creature that Ludwig came to identify with strongly. 91 00:08:34,460 --> 00:08:41,140 He began to imagine that when he grew up, he would be the Swan King, 92 00:08:41,140 --> 00:08:45,460 the Lohengrin character of legend made monarch. 93 00:08:54,300 --> 00:08:57,660 The scale and imagery of Hohenschwangau is extraordinary. 94 00:08:59,700 --> 00:09:02,220 But it would be nothing compared to the heights 95 00:09:02,220 --> 00:09:05,060 to which the adult Ludwig would go. 96 00:09:16,180 --> 00:09:20,660 On March 10, 1864, Ludwig became King of Bavaria. 97 00:09:21,860 --> 00:09:24,260 He was crowned at the Royal Palace 98 00:09:24,260 --> 00:09:27,500 in the heart of the Bavarian capital, Munich. 99 00:09:31,380 --> 00:09:35,140 He was just 18 years old, a shy young man 100 00:09:35,140 --> 00:09:38,860 and not greatly interested in affairs of state. 101 00:09:38,860 --> 00:09:41,900 He was much more interested in the things that happened 102 00:09:41,900 --> 00:09:43,500 in the magnificent building 103 00:09:43,500 --> 00:09:45,980 just a stone's throw from the royal residence. 104 00:09:45,980 --> 00:09:48,580 It was a place where he could lose himself 105 00:09:48,580 --> 00:09:50,820 in the stories and legends he adored. 106 00:09:57,780 --> 00:10:00,580 Munich's theatre and opera house was, to Ludwig, 107 00:10:00,580 --> 00:10:04,300 a spectacular place of magic and escapism. 108 00:10:05,540 --> 00:10:09,180 Here he saw that heroic architecture could be evoked 109 00:10:09,180 --> 00:10:10,980 through operatic stage sets. 110 00:10:14,100 --> 00:10:16,580 Artifice would be the means to conjure up 111 00:10:16,580 --> 00:10:21,420 the power of German myth and legend as the epic scale demanded. 112 00:10:27,940 --> 00:10:29,820 The man who would take opera 113 00:10:29,820 --> 00:10:33,820 to new Romantic heights in the 19th century was Richard Wagner. 114 00:10:35,100 --> 00:10:39,500 And Ludwig had been following the great composer even as a boy. 115 00:10:42,100 --> 00:10:47,220 On February 2, 1861, three years before he became king, 116 00:10:47,220 --> 00:10:52,540 Ludwig attended a performance here in the Munich State Theatre 117 00:10:52,540 --> 00:10:54,180 of Wagner's Lohengrin. 118 00:10:54,180 --> 00:10:57,820 Now, at that point, Ludwig was 15 years old 119 00:10:57,820 --> 00:11:01,740 and familiar with Wagner's writing about art and politics, 120 00:11:01,740 --> 00:11:05,300 but his experience that night, in this theatre, 121 00:11:05,300 --> 00:11:07,540 transformed admiration 122 00:11:07,540 --> 00:11:11,340 into something akin to religious devotion. 123 00:11:15,780 --> 00:11:18,980 One of Ludwig's first actions on becoming king 124 00:11:18,980 --> 00:11:21,180 was to invite Wagner to dinner. 125 00:11:27,900 --> 00:11:32,660 Wagner was 50 years old. Ludwig was 18. 126 00:11:32,660 --> 00:11:34,900 It was an extraordinary relationship - 127 00:11:34,900 --> 00:11:40,260 the gauche boy-king and the operatic revolutionary. 128 00:11:40,260 --> 00:11:45,580 But they shared a love of excess and a world built on a heroic scale 129 00:11:45,580 --> 00:11:49,860 and, of course, an obsession with Germanic legend. 130 00:11:53,260 --> 00:11:57,740 For Ludwig, Wagner's operas are magical experiences, revelations, 131 00:11:57,740 --> 00:12:02,980 they transported him into worlds of beauty, myth, legend and romance. 132 00:12:02,980 --> 00:12:06,740 Soon, he started to command his own private performances, 133 00:12:06,740 --> 00:12:10,500 so that he could hear the music in solitude, 134 00:12:10,500 --> 00:12:13,100 but eventually not even that was enough. 135 00:12:13,100 --> 00:12:16,780 He built his own Wagnerian stage sets. 136 00:12:27,740 --> 00:12:31,700 Neuschwanstein, Ludwig's remarkable attempt to realise 137 00:12:31,700 --> 00:12:35,900 the operas of Richard Wagner in masonry and mortar. 138 00:12:37,580 --> 00:12:41,300 In a commanding position, high above a ravine, 139 00:12:41,300 --> 00:12:45,500 this was to be the castle of Lohengrin, the Swan Knight, 140 00:12:45,500 --> 00:12:49,860 and a powerful statement of Ludwig's position - 141 00:12:49,860 --> 00:12:52,860 a king with a mythological status, 142 00:12:52,860 --> 00:12:57,300 part of the pantheon of strong Germanic kings of legend. 143 00:12:59,660 --> 00:13:03,620 It's an extraordinary Romanesque and Gothic vision 144 00:13:03,620 --> 00:13:06,340 of a medieval knight's castle. 145 00:13:06,340 --> 00:13:10,700 The image is taken straight from German legend. 146 00:13:10,700 --> 00:13:14,340 The impression is of a fairy-tale castle, 147 00:13:14,340 --> 00:13:18,020 perched on top of an impossible mountain. 148 00:13:21,700 --> 00:13:25,220 Neuschwanstein is a stunning feat of engineering. 149 00:13:27,100 --> 00:13:32,460 Work began in 1869 and continued for almost two decades, 150 00:13:32,460 --> 00:13:36,540 at times employing between 200 and 300 workers per day. 151 00:13:38,140 --> 00:13:42,460 It drew artists, craftsmen and artisans from much of Europe. 152 00:13:44,660 --> 00:13:48,100 The result is pure architectural theatre. 153 00:14:08,380 --> 00:14:11,220 This courtyard is based on Wagner's instructions 154 00:14:11,220 --> 00:14:14,580 for a stage set for his opera, Lohengrin. 155 00:14:14,580 --> 00:14:18,020 Ludwig took his architectural inspiration primarily, 156 00:14:18,020 --> 00:14:20,020 and certainly for this castle, 157 00:14:20,020 --> 00:14:23,220 from Wagner rather than from architectural precedent. 158 00:14:23,220 --> 00:14:25,540 And when he needed detailed drawings, 159 00:14:25,540 --> 00:14:28,900 he turned not to an architect, but to a set designer. 160 00:14:33,460 --> 00:14:37,500 Christian Jank had worked with Wagner at the Court Theatre 161 00:14:37,500 --> 00:14:40,020 on an early performance of Lohengrin. 162 00:14:43,380 --> 00:14:47,420 From the start, Jank's drawings show an heroic vision. 163 00:14:50,540 --> 00:14:54,020 Ludwig's fantasy, Wagner's fiction 164 00:14:54,020 --> 00:14:57,380 and a heavy helping of Romantic Gothic. 165 00:15:15,140 --> 00:15:18,180 In Ludwig's mind would be the Singers' Hall 166 00:15:18,180 --> 00:15:21,580 that brought legend and reality together, 167 00:15:21,580 --> 00:15:23,900 a medieval style feasting room 168 00:15:23,900 --> 00:15:26,820 in which Wagner's operas could be sung... 169 00:15:28,660 --> 00:15:33,380 ..and a monument to the knights and kings of Germanic myth. 170 00:15:45,300 --> 00:15:48,620 This could hardly be more theatrical. 171 00:15:48,620 --> 00:15:53,900 This is like a backdrop on a stage at one end of the Singers' Hall. 172 00:15:53,900 --> 00:15:58,540 Amazing. It shows the enchanted forest 173 00:15:58,540 --> 00:16:01,860 surrounding the hiding place of the Holy Grail. 174 00:16:09,580 --> 00:16:11,700 The legend of the Grail was 175 00:16:11,700 --> 00:16:16,020 one of Ludwig's greatest inspirations in the castle. 176 00:16:16,020 --> 00:16:20,740 It had everything - chivalric knights, religious significance 177 00:16:20,740 --> 00:16:23,500 and untold power. 178 00:16:25,100 --> 00:16:29,580 The Singers' Hall is Ludwig at his most heroic and optimistic. 179 00:16:31,260 --> 00:16:34,620 But in private, there are parts of the castle 180 00:16:34,620 --> 00:16:37,980 that don't quite fit this conventional Teutonic vision. 181 00:16:45,020 --> 00:16:50,940 This is Ludwig's bedroom. Very ecclesiastical, richly monastic. 182 00:16:50,940 --> 00:16:54,300 In front of me, his bed, which is amazing really. 183 00:16:54,300 --> 00:16:59,580 It's like a Gothic shrine and a tremendously rich carved canopy. 184 00:16:59,580 --> 00:17:03,300 A shrine or a tomb. Amazing really. 185 00:17:03,300 --> 00:17:04,940 As Ludwig lay there, 186 00:17:04,940 --> 00:17:08,780 he was presided over by a portrait of the Virgin Mary. 187 00:17:10,420 --> 00:17:14,220 On the walls are scenes from the story that was very much 188 00:17:14,220 --> 00:17:18,780 part of Germanic myth, the story, the legend 189 00:17:18,780 --> 00:17:21,180 of Tristan and Isolde, 190 00:17:21,180 --> 00:17:25,020 a strange story really for his bedroom 191 00:17:25,020 --> 00:17:28,500 because it speaks of forbidden earthly love, 192 00:17:28,500 --> 00:17:33,820 brought on by enchantment, a story that ends in tragic death, 193 00:17:33,820 --> 00:17:37,220 but through death, there is redemption. 194 00:17:41,620 --> 00:17:43,740 Ludwig never married 195 00:17:43,740 --> 00:17:47,700 and his sexuality has long been the subject of speculation. 196 00:17:49,060 --> 00:17:53,180 Throughout his life, he formed close bonds with numerous young men, 197 00:17:53,180 --> 00:17:56,060 from actors to courtiers. 198 00:17:56,060 --> 00:18:00,500 It seems almost certain that Ludwig was homosexual. 199 00:18:00,500 --> 00:18:04,340 Seen in this light, the room begins to make sense. 200 00:18:04,340 --> 00:18:07,980 As a devout Catholic monarch, 201 00:18:07,980 --> 00:18:15,540 Ludwig's homosexuality filled him with remorse, shame and guilt, 202 00:18:15,540 --> 00:18:20,660 and I suppose, therefore, one can see these paintings 203 00:18:20,660 --> 00:18:24,740 as representing, for him, a cautionary tale, 204 00:18:24,740 --> 00:18:31,780 a tale that told him that earthly love was out of bounds. 205 00:18:31,780 --> 00:18:37,580 Also, I suppose, it could have suggested that, through death, 206 00:18:37,580 --> 00:18:39,260 he would be redeemed. 207 00:18:49,260 --> 00:18:53,380 Outside the bedroom, Ludwig seems to regain his confidence. 208 00:18:55,940 --> 00:19:00,700 His throne room expresses Ludwig's desire to be an autocratic king, 209 00:19:00,700 --> 00:19:03,420 ruling by God's will, 210 00:19:03,420 --> 00:19:08,020 rather than the constrained, constitutional monarch that he was. 211 00:19:12,500 --> 00:19:16,180 This really is the focus of the entire castle. 212 00:19:16,180 --> 00:19:20,460 Not just the throne room, but a shrine to kingship 213 00:19:20,460 --> 00:19:24,460 and a bold statement of Ludwig's belief 214 00:19:24,460 --> 00:19:27,220 that kings rule by divine right. 215 00:19:27,220 --> 00:19:33,940 It also reveals his view of himself as the king ruling by God's grace, 216 00:19:33,940 --> 00:19:39,100 but also as a mediator between the world and God. 217 00:19:39,100 --> 00:19:41,940 That explains the scheme of decoration of the room to a degree. 218 00:19:41,940 --> 00:19:47,220 Here below me on the floor are images of plants, flowers, 219 00:19:47,220 --> 00:19:50,060 animals, the world we inhabit. 220 00:19:50,060 --> 00:19:57,060 Above, is a celestial dome of stars and a great sun, I suppose - 221 00:19:57,060 --> 00:19:58,300 the heavens and sky. 222 00:19:58,300 --> 00:20:02,580 God and the world of man, and between the two, 223 00:20:02,580 --> 00:20:06,340 this great chandelier in the form of a regal crown, 224 00:20:06,340 --> 00:20:12,820 representing, of course, the king's role between the world and God. 225 00:20:12,820 --> 00:20:14,140 The mediator. 226 00:20:18,540 --> 00:20:22,580 Yet this elaborate imagery was not a public statement. 227 00:20:22,580 --> 00:20:24,420 Neither Ludwig's subjects 228 00:20:24,420 --> 00:20:27,100 nor visiting dignitaries were allowed in. 229 00:20:28,860 --> 00:20:32,500 This was an expression of visual beauty and of a kingly ideal 230 00:20:32,500 --> 00:20:35,700 for the eyes of Ludwig and God alone. 231 00:20:37,020 --> 00:20:39,460 So this seeming public statement 232 00:20:39,460 --> 00:20:42,700 was only for Ludwig's private satisfaction. 233 00:20:42,700 --> 00:20:44,700 Strange, but little here 234 00:20:44,700 --> 00:20:48,020 is as straightforward or obvious as it might seem. 235 00:20:50,380 --> 00:20:51,940 Above the throne room 236 00:20:51,940 --> 00:20:56,140 lies the structural reality behind the theatre set. 237 00:20:56,140 --> 00:20:59,020 This castle is all about appearances. 238 00:20:59,020 --> 00:21:01,340 Here, history is only skin deep. 239 00:21:01,340 --> 00:21:03,220 Clearly, Ludwig didn't care too much 240 00:21:03,220 --> 00:21:05,340 about authentic medieval construction 241 00:21:05,340 --> 00:21:10,180 because, behind the veneer of Romanesque detail and stone, 242 00:21:10,180 --> 00:21:16,220 is this utterly modern, utilitarian, almost industrial world, 243 00:21:16,220 --> 00:21:20,900 because this in front of me is the dome above the throne room. 244 00:21:20,900 --> 00:21:23,740 Incredible. There is the central dome of the throne room 245 00:21:23,740 --> 00:21:26,900 and you can see it is supported by, I suppose, 246 00:21:26,900 --> 00:21:31,740 wrought-iron lattice sort of ribs 247 00:21:31,740 --> 00:21:35,300 and they hold up the dome itself, which appears to be made out of 248 00:21:35,300 --> 00:21:40,340 some sort of concrete or lime mixture, entirely modern. 249 00:21:40,340 --> 00:21:46,580 So, an incredible world, isn't it? Below, ancient beauty. 250 00:21:46,580 --> 00:21:49,940 Up here, modern industrial construction. 251 00:21:56,060 --> 00:22:00,540 The relationship between engineering and artifice is an effective one. 252 00:22:02,020 --> 00:22:06,540 Likewise, the overall fantasy of Neuschwanstein was not entirely 253 00:22:06,540 --> 00:22:10,300 disconnected from events outside its walls. 254 00:22:16,740 --> 00:22:22,420 In 1866, Ludwig and Bavaria had suffered a bruising humiliation. 255 00:22:30,340 --> 00:22:34,220 Ludwig, much against his will, had been obliged to pick sides 256 00:22:34,220 --> 00:22:39,060 when two Germanic states, Austria and Prussia, came to blows. 257 00:22:39,060 --> 00:22:41,900 Unfortunately, he backed the wrong horse. 258 00:22:41,900 --> 00:22:43,540 Feeling more sympathy for 259 00:22:43,540 --> 00:22:46,580 their southern neighbours and fellow Catholics, 260 00:22:46,580 --> 00:22:52,500 the Bavarians had sided with Austria, but the conflict, 261 00:22:52,500 --> 00:22:58,140 known as the Seven Weeks War, ended in a decisive Prussian victory. 262 00:23:02,860 --> 00:23:05,540 Ludwig's image of himself had taken a blow. 263 00:23:06,900 --> 00:23:11,780 Both his kingdom and his position had been fundamentally weakened. 264 00:23:34,220 --> 00:23:38,820 Neuschwanstein was Ludwig's retort to reality, 265 00:23:38,820 --> 00:23:43,100 a beacon for how things should be. 266 00:23:43,100 --> 00:23:45,540 It would set him on a course. 267 00:23:45,540 --> 00:23:49,740 Architecture would become his manifesto for a better future. 268 00:23:51,900 --> 00:23:55,660 It would be a journey that would take Ludwig to ever greater heights 269 00:23:55,660 --> 00:23:58,300 of visual beauty and excess. 270 00:24:19,060 --> 00:24:23,060 Ludwig became increasingly reclusive as he spent 271 00:24:23,060 --> 00:24:27,620 more and more of his time, money and energy on architecture. 272 00:24:27,620 --> 00:24:32,860 If Neuschwanstein was a castle fit for a Swan King, what he needed, 273 00:24:32,860 --> 00:24:36,820 he thought, was a country retreat, a royal villa, 274 00:24:36,820 --> 00:24:39,340 and he knew just the place to build it. 275 00:24:43,620 --> 00:24:46,860 Ludwig had inherited a small hunting lodge 276 00:24:46,860 --> 00:24:50,300 just 15 miles into the mountains from Neuschwanstein. 277 00:24:52,980 --> 00:24:57,220 He now turned his attention to transforming it into a royal palace, 278 00:24:57,220 --> 00:25:01,100 a refuge deep in secluded woods, 279 00:25:01,100 --> 00:25:05,740 and one that could scarcely be more dissimilar to Neuschwanstein. 280 00:25:08,420 --> 00:25:10,780 This is Linderhof. 281 00:25:26,820 --> 00:25:29,900 After Neuschwanstein, this palatial villa 282 00:25:29,900 --> 00:25:32,380 comes as something of a surprise. 283 00:25:32,380 --> 00:25:36,140 It's utterly different in architectural style and in scale. 284 00:25:36,140 --> 00:25:40,660 Gone are the fairy-tale towers and the mock medieval detailing. 285 00:25:40,660 --> 00:25:44,300 Instead, for this mini palace, Ludwig preferred to go for 286 00:25:44,300 --> 00:25:48,260 the Baroque Classical manner of 18th-century France. 287 00:25:52,900 --> 00:25:56,540 For Ludwig, this change in style was deliberate. 288 00:25:58,380 --> 00:26:02,340 In the real world, he was a king constrained by his ministers 289 00:26:02,340 --> 00:26:05,980 and by the military might of his Prussian neighbour. 290 00:26:09,700 --> 00:26:11,380 But in his imagination, 291 00:26:11,380 --> 00:26:15,780 he was the very embodiment of the all-powerful monarch, 292 00:26:15,780 --> 00:26:18,220 a king ruling by divine right. 293 00:26:22,340 --> 00:26:25,580 And one historical figure more than any other 294 00:26:25,580 --> 00:26:29,500 symbolised this ideal for Ludwig. 295 00:26:29,500 --> 00:26:33,900 The entrance vestibule. Solid grandeur. 296 00:26:33,900 --> 00:26:38,220 Lovely marble, Doric columns and... 297 00:26:38,220 --> 00:26:41,140 Well, now, there can be no doubt about 298 00:26:41,140 --> 00:26:44,860 who's the inspiration behind this creation because here, 299 00:26:44,860 --> 00:26:48,220 confronting all who arrive, is an equestrian statue 300 00:26:48,220 --> 00:26:53,460 of the French king, Louis XIV, the epitome of the absolute monarch. 301 00:26:53,460 --> 00:26:55,940 A lovely piece of work. 302 00:26:55,940 --> 00:26:58,020 And here, on the ceiling above, 303 00:26:58,020 --> 00:27:01,980 is a great sunburst of the Sun King with, in the middle, 304 00:27:01,980 --> 00:27:08,300 the Bourbon motto - "Nec pluribus impar," none his equal. 305 00:27:08,300 --> 00:27:11,780 Of course, the motto of the Sun King, Louis, 306 00:27:11,780 --> 00:27:17,420 but also the motto by which Ludwig would like to be known. 307 00:27:25,420 --> 00:27:29,140 As Prussia dominated the Germanic world 308 00:27:29,140 --> 00:27:33,460 and Bavaria's power waned, Ludwig's architecture became 309 00:27:33,460 --> 00:27:37,060 the one place he could create the world as he thought it should be. 310 00:27:38,540 --> 00:27:42,580 A world that respected the power of absolute monarchy, 311 00:27:42,580 --> 00:27:45,180 the world of Louis XIV. 312 00:27:52,300 --> 00:27:54,740 What an astonishing room. 313 00:27:54,740 --> 00:27:58,660 An incredible evocation of the grandeur and opulence 314 00:27:58,660 --> 00:28:01,060 of early 18th-century France. 315 00:28:01,060 --> 00:28:05,300 This is the king's bedroom, there is the king's bed, 316 00:28:05,300 --> 00:28:10,140 separated from the world of mere mortals by this balustrade. 317 00:28:10,140 --> 00:28:12,660 Raised, as if on an altar, 318 00:28:12,660 --> 00:28:17,340 is the divine bed of the incredible divine king. 319 00:28:17,340 --> 00:28:20,100 Incredible sanctified territory. 320 00:28:20,100 --> 00:28:24,380 Here, Ludwig would have presided in solitary grandeur. 321 00:28:30,980 --> 00:28:33,060 Almost every room in this building 322 00:28:33,060 --> 00:28:36,100 speaks of power and kingship through beauty. 323 00:28:42,460 --> 00:28:46,340 But they do so on a surprisingly small scale. 324 00:28:46,340 --> 00:28:48,740 This is Ludwig's world in miniature, 325 00:28:48,740 --> 00:28:53,860 a private set of rooms decorated to mind-boggling intensity. 326 00:28:59,260 --> 00:29:02,940 This is the most visually dramatic room in the palace. 327 00:29:02,940 --> 00:29:05,780 Standing here between these two mirrors, 328 00:29:05,780 --> 00:29:11,700 I can see an endless vista of rooms stretching to infinity. 329 00:29:11,700 --> 00:29:13,940 It's incredible. 330 00:29:13,940 --> 00:29:20,980 Ludwig would come into this mirror room to read alone at night. 331 00:29:22,900 --> 00:29:27,420 It's strange, this mirrored room offers a window into Ludwig's soul. 332 00:29:27,420 --> 00:29:31,620 You can imagine him standing here looking into these mirrors, 333 00:29:31,620 --> 00:29:36,700 seeing himself in a vast and stately palace, but in fact, 334 00:29:36,700 --> 00:29:41,220 it's nothing but a tiny room, all just a figment of his imagination. 335 00:29:44,420 --> 00:29:47,060 Each room in this mini palace 336 00:29:47,060 --> 00:29:50,060 is stuffed full of priceless works of art. 337 00:29:50,060 --> 00:29:52,780 Sevres porcelain urns. 338 00:29:52,780 --> 00:29:56,740 Even Sevres porcelain peacocks. 339 00:30:00,140 --> 00:30:03,300 Meissen candelabra and sconces. 340 00:30:06,340 --> 00:30:09,700 Lobmeyr crystal chandeliers. 341 00:30:14,260 --> 00:30:16,460 Under the patronage of Ludwig, 342 00:30:16,460 --> 00:30:19,740 there was a blossoming of the arts in Bavaria. 343 00:30:19,740 --> 00:30:22,820 Munich came second only to Paris and Vienna 344 00:30:22,820 --> 00:30:25,820 as a centre of artistic excellence. 345 00:30:30,300 --> 00:30:36,820 And Ludwig was a man possessed. Every detail was agonised over, 346 00:30:36,820 --> 00:30:41,740 every element personally overseen by the obsessive monarch, 347 00:30:41,740 --> 00:30:43,780 inside and out. 348 00:30:57,980 --> 00:31:00,980 The gardens became Ludwig's playground, 349 00:31:00,980 --> 00:31:04,820 where he achieved glorious and instant gratification 350 00:31:04,820 --> 00:31:07,260 through the construction of buildings 351 00:31:07,260 --> 00:31:09,340 that were little more than stage sets. 352 00:31:11,980 --> 00:31:16,020 Inside this mound is Ludwig's response to the Venus grotto 353 00:31:16,020 --> 00:31:19,300 in Wagner's opera, Tannhauser. 354 00:31:19,300 --> 00:31:25,580 Now, I shall enter through this rocky crevice here in front of me 355 00:31:25,580 --> 00:31:28,700 and, strangely, I see the way is blocked by a vast stone, 356 00:31:28,700 --> 00:31:30,980 which is clearly a door. 357 00:31:30,980 --> 00:31:33,300 It will be heavy, I expect. 358 00:31:33,300 --> 00:31:34,900 Rather impressive. 359 00:31:34,900 --> 00:31:37,180 Ah! HE LAUGHS 360 00:31:37,180 --> 00:31:42,140 No, it's made of plaster. As with so much of Ludwig's world, 361 00:31:42,140 --> 00:31:44,980 all is pure artifice. 362 00:31:49,740 --> 00:31:54,980 The entire grotto is man-made, a framework of iron girders 363 00:31:54,980 --> 00:31:59,940 skilfully covered with canvas and plaster and sculpted to give 364 00:31:59,940 --> 00:32:03,820 the impression of a natural grotto, complete with stalactites. 365 00:32:06,860 --> 00:32:10,060 This grotto is truly amazing. 366 00:32:10,060 --> 00:32:13,580 It's so much bigger than you would think from the outside 367 00:32:13,580 --> 00:32:17,180 and like so many of Ludwig's creations, 368 00:32:17,180 --> 00:32:20,300 both eccentric and breathtaking. 369 00:32:20,300 --> 00:32:23,260 It is ultimate theatre. 370 00:32:23,260 --> 00:32:25,540 What an evocation! 371 00:32:25,540 --> 00:32:29,980 And here, look, incredible. Here is the world of Wagner's Tannhauser. 372 00:32:29,980 --> 00:32:33,580 Here is the lake and there, on the back wall, 373 00:32:33,580 --> 00:32:38,940 indeed, is a painted scene from the opera, showing Venus in her grotto. 374 00:32:38,940 --> 00:32:43,460 There is the design, here is the reality in three dimensions, 375 00:32:43,460 --> 00:32:48,660 created by Ludwig for his pleasure and escape and fantasy. 376 00:32:48,660 --> 00:32:53,260 The lake here and the craft, the sort of shell craft, 377 00:32:53,260 --> 00:32:55,100 the boat from the opera. 378 00:32:56,900 --> 00:32:58,940 He rowed around the lake in that. 379 00:33:00,300 --> 00:33:04,260 You can imagine him sitting in it, fantasising, escaping, 380 00:33:04,260 --> 00:33:07,980 in this incredible world he's created, 381 00:33:07,980 --> 00:33:12,020 a world of pure imagination and artifice. 382 00:33:20,140 --> 00:33:23,580 The theatricality of the grotto was enhanced 383 00:33:23,580 --> 00:33:26,340 by the use of pioneering technology. 384 00:33:26,340 --> 00:33:28,860 Dynamos were installed to power lights 385 00:33:28,860 --> 00:33:31,100 with rotating coloured glass disks, 386 00:33:31,100 --> 00:33:34,380 which created a changing light show for the king. 387 00:33:42,100 --> 00:33:43,900 Ludwig embraced stage design 388 00:33:43,900 --> 00:33:48,660 and new technology at every turn in the pursuit of the perfect illusion. 389 00:34:02,580 --> 00:34:04,340 Not far from the Venus grotto 390 00:34:04,340 --> 00:34:07,700 is something perhaps even more surprising. 391 00:34:21,900 --> 00:34:23,820 This extraordinary site really is 392 00:34:23,820 --> 00:34:26,380 one of the great moments in architecture, 393 00:34:26,380 --> 00:34:31,260 the wonderfully incongruous juxtaposition of this gilded 394 00:34:31,260 --> 00:34:36,900 Islamic dome set against the craggy backdrop of the Bavarian Alps. 395 00:34:42,220 --> 00:34:47,260 The Moorish Kiosk was built for the World Exhibition in Paris in 1867. 396 00:34:51,140 --> 00:34:53,740 Ludwig saw it and had to have it. 397 00:34:55,180 --> 00:34:57,060 He bought the entire structure 398 00:34:57,060 --> 00:35:00,140 and had it rebuilt in the grounds at Linderhof. 399 00:35:02,500 --> 00:35:06,180 A richly decorated interior that transported Ludwig 400 00:35:06,180 --> 00:35:11,540 from the Bavarian Alps to the exotic kingdoms of the Arab world. 401 00:35:18,580 --> 00:35:22,180 The focus of the kiosk is the peacock throne, 402 00:35:22,180 --> 00:35:24,420 a magnificent affair. 403 00:35:24,420 --> 00:35:27,740 There we have the peacock presiding over the sofa 404 00:35:27,740 --> 00:35:30,500 on which Ludwig would have sat. 405 00:35:30,500 --> 00:35:34,980 He had the peacock made in Paris and Munich in 1877. 406 00:35:34,980 --> 00:35:36,460 Made of metal, 407 00:35:36,460 --> 00:35:41,060 the feathers are enamelled metal with polished stone. 408 00:35:41,060 --> 00:35:45,140 The peacock, to him, represented eternity, 409 00:35:45,140 --> 00:35:49,220 the continuation of this state of bliss. 410 00:35:49,220 --> 00:35:52,660 It really is a most bold statement 411 00:35:52,660 --> 00:35:57,140 of power, or imagined power, through beauty. 412 00:36:02,500 --> 00:36:06,140 These buildings in the garden are pure fantasy. 413 00:36:06,140 --> 00:36:09,540 Escapism of the most visceral kind. 414 00:36:09,540 --> 00:36:13,220 There are places in which Ludwig could for a while retreat 415 00:36:13,220 --> 00:36:16,260 from the woes and horrors of the real world. 416 00:36:18,980 --> 00:36:23,020 As he said to a contemporary, "Oh, it is essential to create 417 00:36:23,020 --> 00:36:26,540 "such paradises, such poetical sanctuaries 418 00:36:26,540 --> 00:36:30,740 "where one can forget for a while the dreadful age in which we live." 419 00:36:33,460 --> 00:36:36,100 As the events of that dreadful age develop, 420 00:36:36,100 --> 00:36:40,020 such sanctuaries became increasingly important to the King. 421 00:36:47,180 --> 00:36:51,620 In 1870, Prussia went to war with France. 422 00:36:51,620 --> 00:36:54,580 It was part of a strategy to unite the Germanic states 423 00:36:54,580 --> 00:36:56,260 around a common enemy. 424 00:37:00,340 --> 00:37:04,460 Ludwig had no option but to join the war on the Prussian side. 425 00:37:06,260 --> 00:37:09,460 But he was all too well aware of the cost. 426 00:37:09,460 --> 00:37:12,500 Defeat would be disastrous, 427 00:37:12,500 --> 00:37:14,580 but so would Prussian victory. 428 00:37:16,220 --> 00:37:19,780 For Ludwig, the situation was impossible. 429 00:37:19,780 --> 00:37:24,700 Victory would confirm Prussia as the dominant state in a united Germany 430 00:37:24,700 --> 00:37:28,260 and also confirm Bavaria as little more than a vassal 431 00:37:28,260 --> 00:37:31,980 and as king, Ludwig as a puppet monarch. 432 00:37:36,180 --> 00:37:38,900 Puppet king he would be. 433 00:37:38,900 --> 00:37:41,940 With Prussian victory came an irresistible call 434 00:37:41,940 --> 00:37:45,100 for the creation of a German Empire 435 00:37:45,100 --> 00:37:46,820 but with Prussia at its head. 436 00:37:48,540 --> 00:37:51,300 The dream of German unification would happen 437 00:37:51,300 --> 00:37:53,340 but Ludwig would be sidelined. 438 00:37:54,500 --> 00:37:57,820 Obliged to sign away Bavarian sovereignty to Prussia 439 00:37:57,820 --> 00:38:00,820 in a document known as the Kaiserbrief. 440 00:38:03,260 --> 00:38:06,300 On 18th January, 1871, 441 00:38:06,300 --> 00:38:10,060 the Prussian King was crowned Kaiser or Emperor of Germany 442 00:38:10,060 --> 00:38:14,100 in the famous Hall Of Mirrors at the Palace Of Versailles in France. 443 00:38:15,340 --> 00:38:21,180 The palace of Louis XIV became the birthplace of the new German Reich. 444 00:38:21,180 --> 00:38:25,420 It was a victory for German nationalism on a Wagnerian scale, 445 00:38:25,420 --> 00:38:30,140 but one that made Ludwig and Bavaria subservient to the Prussian King. 446 00:38:32,780 --> 00:38:36,820 Ludwig's response as ever would be architectural 447 00:38:36,820 --> 00:38:39,820 and this time, more ambitious than ever before. 448 00:38:41,740 --> 00:38:47,540 The Prussian King had defiled the greatest palace of Ludwig's hero, Louis XIV. 449 00:38:49,980 --> 00:38:52,860 Now Ludwig would create that palace anew 450 00:38:52,860 --> 00:38:55,540 on an island on Lake Chiemsee, 451 00:38:55,540 --> 00:38:59,220 far from the intrusion and disappointment of real life. 452 00:39:04,060 --> 00:39:09,300 Herrenchiemsee, Ludwig's very own Palace Of Versailles. 453 00:39:24,380 --> 00:39:28,340 But it was built not with the bountiful riches 454 00:39:28,340 --> 00:39:30,020 of a Bourbon monarch, 455 00:39:30,020 --> 00:39:33,700 but at least in part with a secret annual stipend 456 00:39:33,700 --> 00:39:36,420 paid to Ludwig by the Prussian Exchequer 457 00:39:36,420 --> 00:39:38,980 after signing the Kaiserbrief, 458 00:39:38,980 --> 00:39:42,420 the very document that had officially stripped Ludwig 459 00:39:42,420 --> 00:39:44,940 of much of his regal power and status. 460 00:39:46,580 --> 00:39:49,140 Goodness. What grandeur, 461 00:39:49,140 --> 00:39:53,860 what opulence and dare I say, what sort of pretension, really, 462 00:39:53,860 --> 00:39:58,060 because this staircase is based on the Ambassadors' Staircase 463 00:39:58,060 --> 00:39:59,700 in Versailles, of course. 464 00:39:59,700 --> 00:40:02,260 Same scale, same sort of plan. 465 00:40:02,260 --> 00:40:04,900 Incredible decoration. 466 00:40:04,900 --> 00:40:07,220 Apparently, walls of marble, 467 00:40:07,220 --> 00:40:09,220 though I'm sure it's only a veneer. 468 00:40:09,220 --> 00:40:12,100 What's amazing about this, of course, is that 469 00:40:12,100 --> 00:40:18,140 as real power slipped from Ludwig's grip in the world, 470 00:40:18,140 --> 00:40:21,420 he created bigger and grander buildings, 471 00:40:21,420 --> 00:40:26,060 as if, of course, to compensate for the loss of the real thing. 472 00:40:33,460 --> 00:40:38,260 Ludwig's architecture had begun by taking inspiration from the stage. 473 00:40:38,260 --> 00:40:41,340 Now it had truly become little more THAN a stage. 474 00:40:48,060 --> 00:40:50,140 Goodness. 475 00:40:53,540 --> 00:40:57,260 This really is one of the oddest architectural experiences I've ever heard. 476 00:40:57,260 --> 00:41:00,420 I've travelled to a remote island in southern Bavaria 477 00:41:00,420 --> 00:41:05,500 and found myself in Versailles, in the world of Louis XIV. 478 00:41:05,500 --> 00:41:08,260 Incredible. In detail, in scale 479 00:41:08,260 --> 00:41:10,980 in spatial experience, it's Versailles, really. 480 00:41:10,980 --> 00:41:12,820 This is the king's state bedroom. 481 00:41:12,820 --> 00:41:17,180 But of course, not the bedroom of Louis XIV, but of Ludwig II, 482 00:41:17,180 --> 00:41:20,060 the man obsessed by Louis. 483 00:41:20,060 --> 00:41:25,020 Louis represented to Ludwig the idea of absolute monarchy. 484 00:41:25,020 --> 00:41:28,020 This is his homage to Louis. Incredible. 485 00:41:28,020 --> 00:41:31,620 There's Ludwig's bed, balustrade. 486 00:41:31,620 --> 00:41:33,860 What amazing opulence. 487 00:41:33,860 --> 00:41:35,820 It's extraordinary. 488 00:41:35,820 --> 00:41:38,180 Um, what can one say? It's... 489 00:41:38,180 --> 00:41:40,460 extreme, extreme in every way. 490 00:41:40,460 --> 00:41:45,020 He's living in the shadow, in the whorl, of Louis XIV. 491 00:41:45,020 --> 00:41:48,380 Louis is everywhere. His presence, you almost feel it. 492 00:41:48,380 --> 00:41:51,140 And that's the thing. Louis was a great model for Ludwig 493 00:41:51,140 --> 00:41:55,100 of the proper king, the king ruling by divine right, 494 00:41:55,100 --> 00:41:57,100 the absolute monarch. 495 00:41:57,100 --> 00:41:59,500 And indeed, one can see images of Louis there. 496 00:41:59,500 --> 00:42:02,460 Above each of the four doors are scenes from court life 497 00:42:02,460 --> 00:42:06,660 in Versailles, each featuring Louis going about his business, 498 00:42:06,660 --> 00:42:09,620 dispensing power, giving audiences, 499 00:42:09,620 --> 00:42:12,900 indeed, exuding that sort of power, that regal power, 500 00:42:12,900 --> 00:42:14,580 which Ludwig did not have. 501 00:42:18,620 --> 00:42:20,900 There is one key difference - 502 00:42:20,900 --> 00:42:23,500 Louis XIV's palace functioned, 503 00:42:23,500 --> 00:42:25,020 Ludwig's did not. 504 00:42:37,940 --> 00:42:39,540 This is the council chamber, 505 00:42:39,540 --> 00:42:44,020 but no historic council meetings took place here, no audiences. 506 00:42:44,020 --> 00:42:45,700 Ludwig wouldn't allow them. 507 00:42:45,700 --> 00:42:48,420 But of course, the palace of an absolute monarch 508 00:42:48,420 --> 00:42:53,060 had to have an audience chamber and so here it is. 509 00:42:53,060 --> 00:42:57,220 There is the throne on which Ludwig should have sat. 510 00:42:57,220 --> 00:43:00,100 Behind it, staring down as if bestowing blessings, 511 00:43:00,100 --> 00:43:02,620 is a portrait of Louis XIV. 512 00:43:02,620 --> 00:43:04,420 But of course, it's all very sad 513 00:43:04,420 --> 00:43:06,700 because he's looking down onto a chair 514 00:43:06,700 --> 00:43:10,940 which was and remains perpetually empty. 515 00:43:10,940 --> 00:43:13,380 It's all, really, very haunting. 516 00:43:18,340 --> 00:43:21,540 But the focus of the palace is Ludwig's answer 517 00:43:21,540 --> 00:43:24,420 to the very grandest room of Versailles, 518 00:43:24,420 --> 00:43:27,180 the scene of the recent Prussian triumph 519 00:43:27,180 --> 00:43:32,780 which had led to the eclipse of Ludwig's dreams and ambitions for Bavaria. 520 00:43:32,780 --> 00:43:36,300 This is the visually most striking room in the palace, or is usually, 521 00:43:36,300 --> 00:43:38,860 but as you can see, it's under repair. 522 00:43:38,860 --> 00:43:42,380 It's based on the Hall Of Mirrors at Versailles. 523 00:43:42,380 --> 00:43:46,380 Indeed, in many ways, it's a very exact replica. 524 00:43:46,380 --> 00:43:50,660 This room must have had great meaning for Ludwig. 525 00:43:50,660 --> 00:43:54,180 The Hall Of Mirrors at Versailles had been sullied 526 00:43:54,180 --> 00:43:57,380 because it had been used by the Prussians as a location 527 00:43:57,380 --> 00:44:02,620 in which to proclaim their king the new emperor of united Germany. 528 00:44:02,620 --> 00:44:06,700 Ludwig's response was to build his own Hall Of Mirrors, 529 00:44:06,700 --> 00:44:11,660 which at 98 metres is somewhat larger than the original. 530 00:44:11,660 --> 00:44:14,020 He was, of course, making a point. 531 00:44:22,740 --> 00:44:28,220 In this grand hall, Ludwig's pursuit of beauty reached a crescendo. 532 00:44:33,980 --> 00:44:36,380 It is an almost exact reproduction 533 00:44:36,380 --> 00:44:39,020 of the Hall Of Mirrors at Versailles. 534 00:44:46,900 --> 00:44:52,380 Ludwig couldn't resist one or two ironical theatrical flourishes, 535 00:44:52,380 --> 00:44:56,740 such as this image of Fame blowing her trumpet 536 00:44:56,740 --> 00:44:58,900 but tumbling from the heights. 537 00:45:06,420 --> 00:45:09,340 In the dining room, the table is today encased 538 00:45:09,340 --> 00:45:12,060 in a protective glass box. 539 00:45:12,060 --> 00:45:16,180 It's not for the sake of the table so much as what sits on it. 540 00:45:17,500 --> 00:45:21,580 Look. Upon the table is, well, a bunch of flowers, 541 00:45:21,580 --> 00:45:24,340 but they're not flowers in the usual sense, 542 00:45:24,340 --> 00:45:26,660 they're made of porcelain, Meissen porcelain. 543 00:45:26,660 --> 00:45:28,340 Absolutely fantastic. 544 00:45:28,340 --> 00:45:30,900 Sitting in a Meissen porcelain urn. 545 00:45:32,460 --> 00:45:35,340 Absolutely delicate, lifelike, beautiful. 546 00:45:35,340 --> 00:45:39,660 You can almost see the dew upon the petals. Incredible stuff. 547 00:45:44,100 --> 00:45:48,500 What's more amazing still is what hangs above the table. Look at that. 548 00:45:48,500 --> 00:45:53,020 The largest Meissen porcelain chandelier ever made. 549 00:45:53,020 --> 00:45:54,500 108 candles on it. 550 00:45:54,500 --> 00:45:56,580 A thing of utter beauty. 551 00:45:56,580 --> 00:45:59,260 Look at the colours, the way it glistens. 552 00:45:59,260 --> 00:46:00,660 Little bunch of flowers 553 00:46:00,660 --> 00:46:04,300 and I see birds sitting on the stems of the object. 554 00:46:04,300 --> 00:46:08,340 Absolutely amazing. Now, Ludwig was a jealous monarch, 555 00:46:08,340 --> 00:46:12,060 jealous when it came to beauty, to things he loved. 556 00:46:12,060 --> 00:46:15,660 When this was made, he ordered the mould should be smashed 557 00:46:15,660 --> 00:46:19,220 so no such chandelier could ever be made again. 558 00:46:19,220 --> 00:46:20,740 This remains unique. 559 00:46:33,340 --> 00:46:38,180 And here the dining table is small. Just seats four people, really. 560 00:46:38,180 --> 00:46:40,860 So, clearly, if the King wanted to be left alone 561 00:46:40,860 --> 00:46:44,020 to dine in reflective solitude, 562 00:46:44,020 --> 00:46:48,620 perhaps joined only by characters from his imagination. 563 00:46:48,620 --> 00:46:51,460 Also, a wishing table, as it's called, 564 00:46:51,460 --> 00:46:56,780 descends into the floor. The pulley, so it can be laid, pulled up. 565 00:46:56,780 --> 00:46:58,500 The King can sit there dining 566 00:46:58,500 --> 00:47:01,260 and not be disturbed by servants coming and going. 567 00:47:04,380 --> 00:47:08,700 As with so much of Ludwig's world, this is a brilliant conjuring trick. 568 00:47:10,340 --> 00:47:13,740 Downstairs, Ludwig employed technology 569 00:47:13,740 --> 00:47:16,100 and the lessons of theatre set design 570 00:47:16,100 --> 00:47:17,820 to safeguard his solitude. 571 00:47:19,780 --> 00:47:22,900 This is the mechanism that operates the wishing table. 572 00:47:22,900 --> 00:47:24,900 Up there, it's a table 573 00:47:24,900 --> 00:47:29,020 in that wonderful porcelain rococo dining room. 574 00:47:29,020 --> 00:47:34,900 Below here, this utterly ruthless piece of late 19th-century 575 00:47:34,900 --> 00:47:40,300 hi-tech engineering. Wonderful sort of lattice construction. 576 00:47:40,300 --> 00:47:43,820 Wrought iron or maybe steal. And of course, this great wheel. 577 00:47:43,820 --> 00:47:48,860 It's a winch to push this round. There are counterweights. 578 00:47:48,860 --> 00:47:50,900 There's a ratchet over here. 579 00:47:50,900 --> 00:47:53,620 And one would simply lower the table, 580 00:47:53,620 --> 00:47:56,340 down it would come into this space here 581 00:47:56,340 --> 00:48:00,220 and I suppose, if possible, one would put on the next course 582 00:48:00,220 --> 00:48:02,420 and up it would go again. 583 00:48:02,420 --> 00:48:06,180 So, typical of Ludwig, this contrast of worlds, 584 00:48:06,180 --> 00:48:10,180 the world of beauty, history and solitude, 585 00:48:10,180 --> 00:48:14,140 and down here, modern engineering 586 00:48:14,140 --> 00:48:16,140 and I say a scurry of staff. 587 00:48:17,660 --> 00:48:20,860 Active here, invisible to the King above. 588 00:48:29,580 --> 00:48:33,820 As Ludwig retreated further into his own fantasy world, 589 00:48:33,820 --> 00:48:38,820 he began to see himself not as a Sun King in Louis XIV's image, 590 00:48:38,820 --> 00:48:42,780 but as the Moon King, a dark reflection of his hero. 591 00:48:53,780 --> 00:48:57,300 Veronika Endlicher is a curator at Herrenchiemsee 592 00:48:57,300 --> 00:49:01,940 and an authority on both the palace and its creator. 593 00:49:01,940 --> 00:49:06,300 Ludwig inverts aspects of Louis the Sun King 594 00:49:06,300 --> 00:49:10,620 because Ludwig sees himself as the Moon King, doesn't he? 595 00:49:10,620 --> 00:49:12,700 SHE SPEAKS IN GERMAN 596 00:49:31,540 --> 00:49:35,460 Of course, Ludwig is obsessed with beauty in architecture, in art, 597 00:49:35,460 --> 00:49:39,060 but he himself becomes, in his view, anyway, less beautiful. 598 00:49:39,060 --> 00:49:41,700 So this must be a big issue for him, a challenge. 599 00:50:25,100 --> 00:50:28,660 Ludwig only stayed at this palace once. 600 00:50:28,660 --> 00:50:32,180 Despite his grand plans, events overtook him 601 00:50:32,180 --> 00:50:34,540 and the palace remains unfinished. 602 00:50:37,100 --> 00:50:39,060 The result is rather spooky. 603 00:50:41,380 --> 00:50:46,140 Beautifully ornate rooms lead into unfinished shells. 604 00:50:50,140 --> 00:50:53,780 Walking between these spaces is like walking offstage 605 00:50:53,780 --> 00:50:56,180 into the wings of a theatre. 606 00:50:56,180 --> 00:51:00,260 This is the companion staircase to the one I walked up earlier. 607 00:51:00,260 --> 00:51:03,220 That, of course, clad in marble, 608 00:51:03,220 --> 00:51:07,780 a thing of great beauty expressing imperial power. 609 00:51:07,780 --> 00:51:11,460 This, a hollow sham, really, 610 00:51:11,460 --> 00:51:14,940 a grim reflection of reality. 611 00:51:14,940 --> 00:51:17,940 This is all so symbolic. 612 00:51:17,940 --> 00:51:21,540 Ludwig created this palace to express kingship, 613 00:51:21,540 --> 00:51:25,260 but he was, in fact, a king who'd lost his kingdom 614 00:51:25,260 --> 00:51:28,580 and the unfinished state of this staircase, 615 00:51:28,580 --> 00:51:32,340 captures the absolute moment when the dream came to an end. 616 00:51:34,980 --> 00:51:38,980 Ludwig's increasingly eccentric behaviour had not gone unnoticed 617 00:51:38,980 --> 00:51:40,900 by his ministers. 618 00:51:40,900 --> 00:51:43,820 He spent months at a time away from Munich. 619 00:51:43,820 --> 00:51:47,420 He lived by night and had little or no interest 620 00:51:47,420 --> 00:51:50,260 in public appearances or matters of state. 621 00:51:51,980 --> 00:51:56,060 More importantly, he had run up enormous debts. 622 00:51:56,060 --> 00:51:59,620 The cost of his building schemes had bankrupted Ludwig, 623 00:51:59,620 --> 00:52:03,220 but he refused to curb his expenditure. 624 00:52:03,220 --> 00:52:08,540 By 1885, the King was more than 14 million marks in debt, 625 00:52:08,540 --> 00:52:11,780 3.5 billion euros in today's money. 626 00:52:15,380 --> 00:52:18,660 The Cabinet, faced with a king who seem to have few interests 627 00:52:18,660 --> 00:52:22,820 beyond his building projects and running up debts, 628 00:52:22,820 --> 00:52:27,220 decided to act. It gathered facts and opinions from Ludwig's staff 629 00:52:27,220 --> 00:52:30,340 and then consulted a team of psychiatrists. 630 00:52:30,340 --> 00:52:33,900 Now, these psychiatrists without even interviewing Ludwig 631 00:52:33,900 --> 00:52:39,500 concluded that His Majesty is in a far advanced state of insanity. 632 00:52:44,300 --> 00:52:47,100 It was all his ministers needed to topple the monarch. 633 00:52:48,540 --> 00:52:52,500 Just after midnight on 12th June, 1886, 634 00:52:52,500 --> 00:52:55,900 a government commission placed the King in custody. 635 00:52:55,900 --> 00:52:59,020 Ludwig's uncle was declared Prince Regent. 636 00:53:00,700 --> 00:53:03,100 Ludwig was transferred to a castle 637 00:53:03,100 --> 00:53:06,180 on the shores of Lake Starnberg near Munich 638 00:53:06,180 --> 00:53:08,140 and placed under house arrest. 639 00:53:26,900 --> 00:53:29,900 The Moon King had lost his kingdom 640 00:53:29,900 --> 00:53:33,500 and perhaps more importantly, his beloved palaces. 641 00:53:33,500 --> 00:53:36,580 He was, according to accounts, 642 00:53:36,580 --> 00:53:39,260 bereft at the thought of the future. 643 00:53:45,420 --> 00:53:48,060 The following day, Ludwig went for a walk 644 00:53:48,060 --> 00:53:52,380 with his psychiatrist Dr Gudden along the banks of the nearby lake. 645 00:53:53,940 --> 00:53:56,380 Neither man returned. 646 00:53:59,660 --> 00:54:05,620 After hours of searching, the bodies of Ludwig and Dr Gudden were found 647 00:54:05,620 --> 00:54:09,380 floating in shallow water on the edge of the lake. 648 00:54:09,380 --> 00:54:12,980 Both had been dead for several hours. 649 00:54:12,980 --> 00:54:17,940 The body of Ludwig showed no signs of obvious injury, 650 00:54:17,940 --> 00:54:23,060 but the body of the doctor showed evidence of a violent struggle. 651 00:54:27,180 --> 00:54:30,340 The King's final moments have been the subject of debate 652 00:54:30,340 --> 00:54:32,660 and speculation ever since. 653 00:54:32,660 --> 00:54:35,900 Did Ludwig attempt suicide, killing his psychiatrist 654 00:54:35,900 --> 00:54:37,900 when he tried to intervene? 655 00:54:37,900 --> 00:54:39,860 Was it a dreadful accident? 656 00:54:39,860 --> 00:54:42,220 Or was the King murdered? 657 00:54:42,220 --> 00:54:45,220 And if so, why? And by whom? 658 00:54:45,220 --> 00:54:50,980 The truth is that Ludwig's last hours remain a mystery, 659 00:54:50,980 --> 00:54:53,940 the final mystery of the man who had declared, 660 00:54:53,940 --> 00:54:59,060 "I want to remain an eternal enigma to myself and to others." 661 00:54:59,060 --> 00:55:00,980 He had his wish. 662 00:55:00,980 --> 00:55:05,820 Today, the site of his death is marked by this simple cross 663 00:55:05,820 --> 00:55:08,380 standing in the lake. 664 00:55:08,380 --> 00:55:14,580 This site remains a place of pilgrimage for Ludwig's admirers. 665 00:55:14,580 --> 00:55:17,060 They gather here every year 666 00:55:17,060 --> 00:55:23,100 on the anniversary of his death to mourn the lost king of Bavaria. 667 00:55:30,260 --> 00:55:34,420 Bigger places of pilgrimage are the palaces themselves. 668 00:55:34,420 --> 00:55:38,780 All were open to the public within six weeks of the King's death. 669 00:55:38,780 --> 00:55:43,020 They've paid for themselves many times over. 670 00:55:43,020 --> 00:55:47,180 Today, Neuschwanstein, the most famous of the palaces, 671 00:55:47,180 --> 00:55:51,780 receives some 6,000 visitors a day in the summer months 672 00:55:51,780 --> 00:55:55,100 and has received more than 50 million visitors 673 00:55:55,100 --> 00:55:59,620 since it was opened to the public on 1st August, 1886. 674 00:56:02,460 --> 00:56:07,060 King Ludwig himself has become a symbol of German pride, 675 00:56:07,060 --> 00:56:10,300 more so today than ever he was in his lifetime. 676 00:56:11,980 --> 00:56:17,340 For many, he represents the heart of Bavaria and the soul of Germany. 677 00:56:25,380 --> 00:56:30,100 I'd be very interested to hear from a young person about King Ludwig. 678 00:56:30,100 --> 00:56:34,620 What do you think? What do people now think of this rather tragic king? 679 00:56:35,780 --> 00:56:39,100 He was kind of special, different, 680 00:56:39,100 --> 00:56:44,220 because Bavaria is very, I would say, conservative 681 00:56:44,220 --> 00:56:47,420 and he wasn't for his time. 682 00:56:47,420 --> 00:56:52,020 I think he was a very modern man in his thinking 683 00:56:52,020 --> 00:56:55,820 and that's because he was an outsider then, so as a consequence. 684 00:56:55,820 --> 00:56:57,980 People thought, "Oh, God. What is he doing? 685 00:56:57,980 --> 00:57:03,380 "He's spending so much money on art or architecture." 686 00:57:03,380 --> 00:57:07,100 But I think people love him. Today, they love him for that. 687 00:57:09,420 --> 00:57:13,820 For most people, the story of Ludwig ends at Lake Starnberg 688 00:57:13,820 --> 00:57:15,500 and the wooden cross. 689 00:57:15,500 --> 00:57:18,300 But for me, there's a more fitting memorial 690 00:57:18,300 --> 00:57:20,740 to this visionary and eccentric king. 691 00:57:22,380 --> 00:57:26,460 This is the Chapel Of Grace in the small town of Altotting, 692 00:57:26,460 --> 00:57:28,860 some 60 miles from Munich, 693 00:57:28,860 --> 00:57:32,180 one of the most visited shrines in the whole of Germany. 694 00:57:34,500 --> 00:57:37,580 It is home to the much venerated Black Madonna, 695 00:57:37,580 --> 00:57:43,540 a 14th-century icon of profound importance in Catholic Bavaria. 696 00:57:45,580 --> 00:57:48,300 But it is also a shrine to Ludwig. 697 00:57:49,940 --> 00:57:55,020 This beautifully-crafted silver-gold urn was made in 1886 698 00:57:55,020 --> 00:57:59,580 by a jeweller that Ludwig used to decorate his palaces. 699 00:57:59,580 --> 00:58:02,340 Outside is Ludwig's cipher, 700 00:58:02,340 --> 00:58:04,860 two Ls entwined. 701 00:58:04,860 --> 00:58:08,420 Inside is Ludwig's heart. 702 00:58:08,420 --> 00:58:12,300 This is entirely in keeping with Bavarian tradition 703 00:58:12,300 --> 00:58:14,420 because resting each side and above 704 00:58:14,420 --> 00:58:18,180 are the hearts of other Bavarian monarchs. 705 00:58:18,180 --> 00:58:22,620 It seems to me that is completely fitting 706 00:58:22,620 --> 00:58:24,700 that a heart that beat for beauty, 707 00:58:24,700 --> 00:58:28,580 the heart of a king that lived for art and architecture 708 00:58:28,580 --> 00:58:33,620 should reside for eternity in an object so beguiling, 709 00:58:33,620 --> 00:58:36,460 in a building so beautiful.