The gilded Throne Hall of Neuschwanstein Castle, the fairytale palace built by Bavaria’s “Mad” King Ludwig II in the 19th century, has returned to its former splendour following a five-year, €20 million restoration.
The dazzlingly ornate chamber, built in the style of Byzantine churches, is the centrepiece of the palace, one of Germany’s most famous buildings.
It expresses the eccentric monarch’s conception of royalty by the grace of God — an outdated view even at the time.
The throne was never installed because Ludwig was deposed, declared insane and died in what some historians say were suspicious circumstances in 1886, before Neuschwanstein was completed.
The palace, built high on a rock against the spectacular backdrop of the Bavarian Alps, attracted over one million visitors a
