Real castle that inspired Disney’s Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty palaces you can visit

Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty's castles are real - and not just at Disneyland. The real-life inspiration for these palaces is Germany's Neuschwanstein Castle, which can be found in the small town of Hohenschwangau in the Bavarian Alps.

Neuschwanstein Castle first served as inspiration for the first castle built in a Disney park when the Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, was constructed in 1955.

It was also among a number of castles that served as inspiration for the Cinderella castles that can be seen at Walt Disney World in Orlando, and Tokyo Disneyland. Other castles that inspired this attraction include the German castles Schwerin and Hohenzollern, and the French Palace of Versailles.

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Neuschwanstein Castle was built during the reign of King Ludwig II of Bavaria, with construction starting in 1869, after he was inspired by the architecture of the castle Wartburg in Eisenach and Château de Pierrefonds in France.

Ludwig, who became known as the 'Fairytale King' and the 'Mad King', commissioned architect Eduard Riedel to start work on the castle, and hired 300 workers who worked all day and night to make his vision come true.

He had originally planned for Neuschwanstein to be completed in three years, but it ended up taking over 16 years and was ultimately never finished, as Ludwig died before completion.

Following his death work on the castle came to an end, and it was opened to the public seven weeks after his death.

The cost of building Neuschwanstein amounted to 6.2 million German gold marks (equivalent to around €47 million) today. These huge costs (and the cost of building two other castles - Linderhof and Herrenchiemsee) left Ludwig, and by extension the whole of Bavaria in debt.

Despite his ever-increasing debts, Ludwig demanded that work on the castles continue, even threatening to take his own life if creditors seized any of his palaces. Ludwig's expenditure and 'madness' led to the Bavarian government deposing him in 1886.

He was then placed under the supervision of the psychiatrist Bernhard von Gudden. Both King Ludwig and Bernhard were found dead on 13 June 1886 under mysterious circumstances.

Neuschwanstein Castle makes for a perfect day trip from Munich or Innsbruck. You can fly to either of these cities from Manchester Airport from £65.

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