It is sort of funny, these are essentially manors that were built to aesthetically evoke the vibes of castles (Not functional as fortifications, but also never intended to be). So, UNESCO is commemorating historical buildings that were themselves built to commemorate a long-gone era!
Someday we will have to show these commemorations in a commemoration of the UNESCO headquarters.
I got dragged to Neuschwanstein by my family, not knowing much about it. Well, it was a crowded and annoying tourist trap, and then I realized, "Wait, this is a fake castle made by a crazy dude?" I found my local fake castle made by a crazy dude more enjoyable (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammond_Castle).
> "Wait, this is a fake castle made by a crazy dude?"
They're in no short supply even today.
https://www.ctinsider.com/realestate/article/chris-mark-cast...
It has a moat and a dungeon in case anyone's interest.
If you don't mind going to fake castles made by crazy dudes check out https://www.postojnska-jama.eu/en/predjama-castle/. This one even has a torture chamber!
What do you mean? This is very much a real castle.
No, it's not. A castle is a fortified place of residence, with heavy emphasis on the military needs in its architectural designs.
Neuschwanstein was built in the 1880s, at which point any fortification that could have fulfilled its military role you would not want to live in, thanks to improvements in artillery. Castles are functionally obsolete around the 15th century, when gunpowder-based artillery became common and you needed substantial more earthworks and enveloping lines of fire rather than the straight curtain wall you see with castles.
Neuschwanstein is instead a 19th-century version of the McMansion: it's a house (palace, really), built to (then-) modern standards that is dressed up to look like some sort of fancy architecture, in this case, a Medieval castle based not on historical research but in the (then-) modern pop culture version of it.
They're referring to the castle linked in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44639920, the comment they replied.
It's a fake castle inasmuch as it was not built out of some military defensive necessity, but a hunting lodge for the rich and powerful to enjoy a retreat. So basically a fancy vacation home. But of course it's a real place with real historic value and absolutely worth a visit.
It was crowded when I visited but it is a very scenic spot. I would love to visit it again
A further irony for Neuschwanstein in particular is that in order to build an inauthentic Medieval-looking castle, they had to completely destroy the ruins of two actual Medieval castles.
The Disneyland Cinderella Castle lists Neuschwanstein among its (obvious) inspirations. So Cinderella Castle is a building commemorating a building commemorating an era.
I got a similar vibe in Legoland, where they have a copy of the copy of the Eiffel tower in Vegas.
How is that different from a copy of the original Eiffel tower?
It's inside of a reproduction of Las Vegas.
It's just begging to be reproduced someone else, unfortunately it would interfere with Disney's "intellectual property" then.
And Roman architecture was largely based on Greek architecture. This type of thing has been happening as long as humans have had historic cultures to emulate and commemorate.
Similar in Scotland. The most photogenic castle (Eilean Donan) is a 19th C. reconstruction of a real but ruined castle.
Caerlaverock castle is pretty spectacular however when it comes to Scottish castles.
It's also funny that many Germans probably never heard of Neuschwanstein, let alone having visited it.
But sure, that's to be expected and the "cultural heritage" designation is not a ranking of the most popular landmarks, for good reasons.
> It's also funny that many Germans probably never heard of Neuschwanstein
I bet most will have, though.
Yeah it's only one of the most famous castles in Germany, they likely haven't heard of it...
I was born in Germany, and while I have heard of it, I probably wouldn't have been able to tell where it is until my early twenties, or that it's even in Germany.
In Western Germany, this never came up anywhere and it also wasn't a major part of history education or things like that.
I've still never been there.
And when the UNESCO thing came up, I had to refresh my knowledge to differentiate the French "Sun King" Louis from the Bavarian king who ordered the building of this castle.
My first introduction to it was that it's a place where foreigners like to go and a popular tourist attraction.
No sure why this incited so many downvotes, but nevermind.
I think it's a common phenomenon with "trademark" things that countries are known for around the world.
This is particularly extreme because it's very specific to Bavaria.
There are many castles in Germany, most of them older than this famous one. Lots of castles in my vicinity too, although they're not as famous.
McMansion Hell has an excellent post on Neuschwanstein: https://mcmansionhell.com/post/771073676232785920/on-neuschw...
Nice.
Now that the thing is a big tourist attraction, it may be net profitable. Annual ticket sales are around EUR 25 million, and the castle is valued around US$ 122 million. That's not a bad ROI.
There are more castles in Germany (20,000 to 25,000) than McDonald's restaurants in the USA (13,500). From that perspective, McDonald's restaurants are more rare and therefore more in danger of extinction, so they should be put on UNESCO's World Heritage List, too.
I think that's the total number of castles built? The number that is around today is much smaller, even when including ruins.
Wish we had done that with Pizza Hut locations.
I don’t think it is about danger of “extinction.” But fast-food has been kind of a big deal for better or worse, so maybe it would be ok put a McDonalds on there?
Note that this particular article is about fairytale castles, so not real castles, and a slightly more unique thing. But there are real forts and castles in the thing as well.
We could possibly worry that fast food is not really worth commemorating. But then, historical forts and castles were sometimes put there for all sorts of nasty reasons, so I don’t know what’s disqualifying.
McDonalds just builds outlets in world heritage sites.
What counts as a castle? If we go by pictures in the article any fancy old building fits. Much like palazzos on Italy.
Maybe the original one, once it goes out of business? But that would be a sad example of American "culture".
> “For our fairytale castles, a fairytale comes true,” says Markus Soeder, a German politician representing Bavaria, in a statement shared with Reuters.
Ah yes, a German politician representing Bavaria. Just like Gavin Nüsom is an American politician representing Kalifornien.
Want to elaborate? That would be a totally fine way of describing Gavin Newsom other than the weird spelling.
Governors perform an executive function, and it's odd to describe "politician role" rather than just naming the role itself; governor for California, Minister or Minister-President for Bavaria.
"Representing" to an American ear sounds more like a legislative role, and from what I can find of Bavaria, that is also wrong, with Minister-President being an executive and head of state figure.
FWIW I am an American but I didn’t assume it was a member of a legislative body. The guy is giving a quote so it seems clear that he’s “representing” the region just in some general sense as a public official.
I think they were for some reason complaining about Reuters not saying that he's Markus Söder, of Bayern.
"Representing" is right, as head of the Bavarian state (not just the executive) he also represents Bavaria in the Bundesrat, which is the second chamber of the German parliament, and to the federal government and the other states ("Länder").
> "Representing" to an American ear sounds more like a legislative role
That's weird though, executive charges are elected representatives as well for the whole jurisdiction. Legislative charges are representatives of specific sub jurisdictions (counties at state level, states at the federal level)
Markus Söder is from Franconia and not from Bavaria in the narrower sense. The comment still doesn't really make much sense.
Also, why did he omit the Umlaut from Söder if he used it for Nüsom?
I think the point is to criticize the press for using the English rendering on the names by referring to an American politician using a German rendering of the name.
This has all been too meta for my tiny brain.
Maybe it's that German humor I hear about
It's no laughing matter