February 9, 2010

Fairytale castle

The impact of Disney on our lives is insidious. Mickey Mouse is an icon the world over. Our image of the perfect castle is Disney's, but did you know that Walt stole that iconic castle from Ludwig II of Bavaria?

Highly eccentric, profilgate, and painfully shy, Ludwig II went on a castle-building rampage in the mid- to late-eighteen hundreds. The most famous castle he commissioned was Neuschwanstein, which was inspiration for Sleeping Beauty's castle at Disneyland.
The fantastic castle features steam engines, electricity, modern venting, a modern water system on all floors, and heating pipes: all amazingly forward innovations for its time. Ludwig was deposed in 1886, his ministers citing insanity. Perhaps the flushing toilet in the master suite terrified his subjects. To this day Ludwig's sanity (or lack thereof) and his death are unsolved mysteries.

1 comment:

Grammarian@mindspring.com said...

When I think of castles I think of turrets and catapults and boiling oil.