Location: Oberammergau, Bavaria Map
Constructed: 1874 by King Ludwig II of Bavaria
Tel. (08822) 920 30
Open: Apr- Sep: 9am- 6pm daily
Oct- Mar: 10am- 4pm daily
Linderhof Palace (Schloss Linderhof) is located near Oberammergau in the state of Bavaria in Germany. The land where the residence of Linderhof Palace stands today was bought by Bavarian King Maximilian II. Construction of the palace started in 1874 by the orders King Ludwig II of Bavaria. Original Konigshauschen or royal cottage increased significantly in size and splendor. Neo- Rococo palace is surrounded by a garden with many pavilions and buildings. This includes Marokkanisches Haus (Moroccan House), Venusgrotte (Venus grotto) and Schwanenwither (Swan Lake).
In the place of the later
Linderhof Castle, there was originally a simple farmhouse from 1790,
which was converted into a hunting seat under Max II in the mid-19th
century. This royal house was still built as a regional wooden house
on a stone plinth, the actual Linderhof was a neighboring farm on
whose property the hunting lodge was located.
From 1868 -
Ludwig II had been crowned four years earlier at the age of 18 - the
young king began with the first plans for several castles outside of
the troubled capital of Munich. His interest in medieval knight
culture and Richard Wagner's musical legends first prompted designs
for Neuschwanstein Castle, the construction of which began in 1869.
In 1867 the king had started to familiarize himself with material
culture at the courts of the absolutist kings of France Louis XIV.,
XV. and XVI. too busy. In this context, Ludwig II had ideas to build
a palace in the Graswang Valley near the hunting lodge based on the
model of the Palace of Versailles, which was to be entirely
dedicated to the French Bourbon kings. This project was initially
referred to as “Meicost-Ettal”, which is an anagram of the quotation
“L’État, c’est moi” (I am the state) attributed to Louis XIV. The
area of the narrow valley turned out to be too small for the
planned palace construction, and so the palace was finally built
from 1878 on the Herreninsel in the Chiemsee, the New Herrenchiemsee
Palace.
As an alternative, Linderhof came up with the idea of
a smaller refuge (place of retreat) analogous to the Marly
pavilion built by Louis XIV from 1678 near Versailles. After the
interior of the Königshäuschen in the Graswangtal had been
redesigned in 1869, Ludwig II had the building expanded in 1870 by
the architect Georg von Dollmann, initially by an east wing in a
northerly direction. Up until then, the new wing was intended to be
a one-off. On the upper floor it contained a main room on an oval
floor plan with two annexes on a horseshoe-shaped floor plan and
thus cited typical floor plans of baroque architecture. However, it
did not have a representative facade based on this era.
From
spring 1871 an identically structured west wing was added and both
buildings were supplemented by a connecting wing on the north side
(mountain side), which contained a first (not preserved) version of
the royal bedroom. In it stood a magnificent bed on the south wall,
so that, like today, the view through the windows looked north to
the mountainside. The royal house was still in the south, but now
outside the new north-south central axis. Ludwig did not have the
hunting lodge demolished yet, as he had a high emotional connection
to the building.
From February 1873, the castle was enclosed
with stone facades based on the Rococo and the roof was added. In
the following year the royal house was moved to its current
location, about two hundred meters west of the castle. The south
flank that was open was closed by the south wing, so that Linderhof
has since formed a compact palace complex. In the south wing, Ludwig
set up a small sequence of rooms at the level of the older rooms,
grouped symmetrically around the south-facing mirrored salon in the
central axis and presented as an enfilade (doors opening in one
axis). In 1876 this area was completed inside. Access to the main
floor was now via a vestibule on the ground floor of the south wing
and a two-armed staircase in the building's former courtyard. In
1874, the planning of the park by the court garden director Carl
Joseph von Effner was also available, which mainly extended in front
of the new southern main and entrance facade.
In 1885/86, the
last construction work was to expand the bedroom to its current size
by Julius Hofmann, and after Ludwig's death the work was completed
in a simplified form.
Linderhof Palace quotes French pleasure palaces (Maisons de plaisance) from the 18th century, which Ludwig knew from contemporary art treatises and later descriptions. Motifs from the Bavarian Rococo are also taken up in the Munich Residence and Nymphenburg Palace (Amalienburg). In the overall structure, however, it is a separate building without direct models. Of not inconsiderable importance is the fact that Ludwig II used a significant part of wood from the area for the construction work for Linderhof Palace and had the work carried out by local woodworkers. You cannot tell from the castle that it is actually made entirely of wood and only covered with plaster. Around this time, the king also introduced continued payment of wages in the event of illness.
Linderhof Palace has a complex but symmetrical
floor plan due to its eventful architectural history. The upper
floor with the living rooms of the king houses a total of two large
halls, the staircase, four almost horseshoe-shaped cabinets, an oval
dining room and study, as well as the tapestry room flanking the
hall of mirrors. In the north-south running central axis are the
largest rooms of the palace - the bedroom in the north and the hall
of mirrors in the south - the side wings accommodate the smaller
salons and cabinets. All rooms are lavishly furnished in the
neo-rococo style, hardly a wall or ceiling surface is without
decoration. The interior designs come from Christian Jank, among
others. Similar to the dining room on Herrenchiemsee, the dining
room of the castle is equipped with a tablecloth, which means that
the table in the dining room can be lowered into the kitchen by a
mechanism. There he was covered and brought back up by hand so that
the king could dine without the presence of his servants.
The
largest room on Linderhof is the north-facing royal bedroom, which
can now be experienced in a second version. Its appearance is based
on the bedroom of the French Sun King, but in different shapes and
colors. As in Versailles (or the Munich Residenz), the bed part is
separated from the rest of the room, which would allow the first and
last audience of a day to be held by the bed, as the Sun King did.
In the days of Ludwig the Bavarian, however, this vision was a thing
of the past: the King of the Constitutional Monarchy of Bavaria had
a completely different political meaning than the absolutist ruler
of France. The veneration of the French royal family by Ludwig II
can be found in numerous other details. Scenes from life at the
court of Versailles are depicted in the ceiling of the dining room,
and the horseshoe-shaped cabinets are decorated with portraits of
French courtiers and noblemen (including Madame de Pompadour and
Madame Dubarry). A magnificent vase from the Sèvres manufactory is
on display in the stairwell.
With the
construction of the palace between 1874 and 1880, the palace gardens
were laid out, and Ludwig II commissioned Carl von Effner to plan
it. The park combines various forms of garden: A formal garden is
laid out around the palace, which combines elements of baroque and
rococo gardens. The large park that surrounds the ornamental garden
within the Graswang valley follows the models of English landscape
gardens with groups of trees and winding paths.
The formal
garden is almost cross-shaped, the center of this cross is the
castle with the large basin in front of it, from which a fountain up
to twenty-two meters high shoots. Along the main axis oriented in a
north-south direction, the garden rises up the slope in front of and
behind the castle, following the course of the terrain, and is
structured by terraces and stairs. The side areas are designed in a
similar way to Boschains. The entire Linderhof Palace Park has
numerous ornamental buildings and follies. There is a small temple
of Venus on the heights of the terraces, the hill behind the bedroom
wing is decorated with a cascade and ends in the so-called Neptune
fountain. Exotic park buildings include the royal house, the Moorish
kiosk, the Moroccan house and the so-called Hundinghütte, which was
only subsequently moved into the park, and the Gurnemanz hermitage.
A special building is the artificial Venus grotto, which refers to
Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser and is supposed to represent the grotto
in the Venusberg. A restoration began in 2016 and is expected to be
completed by the end of 2024.