Neuschwanstein Castle

Neuschwanstein is a nineteenth-century historicist palace on a rugged hill in the Alpine foothills of the far south of Germany, close to the Austrian border. It stands in the Swabia region of Bavaria, in the municipality of Schwangau above the village of Hohenschwangau, which has a castle of its own. The name means, roughly, new swan stone. It is the most photographed building in the country and looks exactly as advertised, but the walk up through the gorge and the bridge above it are what make the visit rather than the interior.