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Germany's Fairytale Castles Added to UNESCO's World Heritage List
- soyNsurf 1y ago[flagged]
- advisedwang 1y agoMcMansion Hell has an excellent post on Neuschwanstein: https://mcmansionhell.com/post/771073676232785920/on-neuschwanstein-castle-part-1 https://mcmansionhell.com/post/771073676232785920/on-neuschw...
- Animats 1y agoNice. 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.
- bee_rider 1y agoIt 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.
- masfuerte 1y agoI got a similar vibe in Legoland, where they have a copy of the copy of the Eiffel tower in Vegas.
- _9ptr 1y agoHow is that different from a copy of the original Eiffel tower?
- pitpatagain 1y agoIt's inside of a reproduction of Las Vegas.
- moritzwarhier 1y agoIt'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.
- kleiba 1y ago> It's also funny that many Germans probably never heard of Neuschwanstein I bet most will have, though.
- slater 1y agoYeah it's only one of the most famous castles in Germany, they likely haven't heard of it...
- moritzwarhier 1y agoI 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.
- BoredPositron 1y agoShow me one German over the age of 12 that doesn't know about Neuschwanstein.
- technothrasher 1y agoI 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 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammond_Castle).
- 1234letshaveatw 1y agoIt was crowded when I visited but it is a very scenic spot. I would love to visit it again
- foobarian 1y agoIf you don't mind going to fake castles made by crazy dudes check out https://www.postojnska-jama.eu/en/predjama-castle/ https://www.postojnska-jama.eu/en/predjama-castle/. This one even has a torture chamber!
- shrx 1y agoWhat do you mean? This is very much a real castle.
- jcranmer 1y agoNo, 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.
- a_bonobo 1y agoThe Disneyland Cinderella Castle lists Neuschwanstein among its (obvious) inspirations. So Cinderella Castle is a building commemorating a building commemorating an era.
- staplung 1y agoA 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.
- slg 1y agoAnd 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.
- dboreham 1y agoSimilar in Scotland. The most photogenic castle (Eilean Donan) is a 19th C. reconstruction of a real but ruined castle.
- SEJeff 1y agoCaerlaverock castle is pretty spectacular however when it comes to Scottish castles.
- loevborg 1y ago> “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.
- bee_rider 1y agoWant to elaborate? That would be a totally fine way of describing Gavin Newsom other than the weird spelling.
- zdragnar 1y agoGovernors 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.
- ascorbic 1y agoI think they were for some reason complaining about Reuters not saying that he's Markus Söder, of Bayern.
- Izikiel43 1y ago> "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)
- thyristan 1y ago"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").
- jansan 1y agoThere 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.
- fweimer 1y agoI think that's the total number of castles built? The number that is around today is much smaller, even when including ruins.
- thrance 1y agoMaybe the original one, once it goes out of business? But that would be a sad example of American "culture".
- Hikikomori 1y agoWhat counts as a castle? If we go by pictures in the article any fancy old building fits. Much like palazzos on Italy.
- smnrchrds 1y agoWish we had done that with Pizza Hut locations.
- joules77 1y agoMcDonalds just builds outlets in world heritage sites.
- bee_rider 1y agoI 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.