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Ludwig II of Bavaria
His life his work
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Photographie de Louis II au début des années 1870, peu après l'unification allemande.

Linderhof and its detached houses

His work

Chapter 3

Linderhof and its detached houses

linderhof

View of the domain of Linderhof from the temple of Venus

The profound admiration of the king for the French monarchy of Louis XIV led him three times in France, in Paris, Versailles and Reims. Returned in Bavaria, he decided, at the same time to Neuschwanstein, to make build in 1868 a detached house inspired from the Trianon of Marie-Antoinette to Versailles. Little by little, this palace, the most reduced of all and the only one finished of living on the king, took the shape of a building at once inspired on the Classicism and on the Renaissance.

Ludwig baptized this castle and his park of 30 ha Linderhof. Situated in the Graswangtal not far from the monastery of Ettal, this castle grew up, once finished in 1876, in the place of the ancient hunting lodge of his father. One of the buildings of the previous set is still visible inside the park. It is in this totally protected place that Ludwig spent most of its time.

To decorate the place, the king soon decided to add it various detached houses: first of all, the Moorish kiosk, which Ludwig, big admirer of the Orientalism, discovered in France, during the World Fair. Ten years later, he bought it and made it place right by the Venus grotto. This one was finished on August 25th, 1877, the day of the 32nd birthday of the king. Inspired by the blue grotto of Capri, it symbolizes the refuge of Hörselberg where the goddess of the Love, always she, imprisons of her charms Tannhaüser. Even there, this place symbolizes the sensual love and at the background, Venus, stripped, represents the feminine but dangerous ideal for the king.

Four other detached houses come to complete the whole park: the Moroccan house, the hut of Hunding, the hermitage of Gurnemanz, recently reconstructed, and the Moorish kiosk close to the grotto. So, Ludwig marries at once the Orientalist influence, the culture and the philosophy to which he feels close, and Wagnerian influence, with Parsifal and the Walkyrie.

© Copyright 2015 Elisabeth Fontaine-Bachelier

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