It鈥檚 not easy to build a castle, but some seem to have even more than the usual trouble鈥�
It鈥檚 not easy to build a castle, as the craftspeople in this week鈥檚 Projects piece can attest, says Deborah Duke. But some seem to have even more than the usual trouble, one of the most notable being 鈥淢ad鈥� King Ludwig of Bavaria.
Famous for a love of Wagner and erratic behaviour, lanky and legally insane Ludwig II was not what you might call a dream client. And the birth of his pet project, Bavaria鈥檚 fairytale-like Neuschwanstein Castle, was catastrophic enough to land it on 黑洞社区鈥檚 2005 list of 鈥淭he top 10 most disastrous building projects in the world EVER鈥�.
Coming in at number 5, the castle is described thus: 鈥淓nvisioned less as a home, more as a stage for the operas of Ludwig鈥檚 hero Richard Wagner, the project began to unravel when, 14 years into the three-year programme, Wagner died, never having seen it, let alone staged an opera there.鈥�
Then it got worse: 鈥淎 year later, Ludwig decided to move in, staying for a grand total of 11 nights before finding the continuing building work not to his taste. Following Ludwig鈥檚 own death two years later, the work ground on for a further eight years. When the builders finally downed their tools in 1894, only a third of the rooms had been finished.鈥�
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