Schloß Herrenchiemsee Things to Do Tips by Kuznetsov_Sergey Top 5 Page for this destination

Schloss-Park - general

The numerous design features of the Herrenchiemsee Palace Park impresses very much.

There are 3.5 hectares of lawn, 6.5 hectares of paths, 0.1 hectares of flowerbeds, 2.5 hectares of hedges, 4900 metres of avenue trees and numerous pools and figures.

You can watch my 5 min 10 sec Video Park&Schloss Herrenchiemsee out of my Youtube channel or here on VT.

The Chiemsee lake

The Chiemsee lake has the square about 80 square kilometers and is situated in foothill area of Bavaria Chimgau. That is why it is sometimes named the Bavarian sea.

It is located at height of 518 m. Three large islands are available on lake: Herreninsel - man's island, Fraueninsel-female island and Krautinsel - grassy island.

You can watch my 3 min 12 sec Video Chiemsee out of my Youtube channel or here on VT.

King Ludwig II Museum

There is a museum of King Ludwig II in the palace where it is possible to see personal things of the king, to familiarize with his life, to find out about his love to music and theatre.
The museum is accommodated in twelve modernized rooms on the ground floor of the south wing and was opened in 1987.

It documents the story of Ludwig II's life from his birth to his tragic early death with painted portraits, busts, historic photographs and original state robes.

The king went down in the history of music as patron of the composer Richard Wagner. Portraits, written documents and theatre and stage set models record this aspect of his life.

You can watch my 1 min 07 sec Video Herrenchiemsee Ludwig's Museum out of my Youtube channel or here on VT.

East side

On the east side two horseshoe-shaped stable buildings were to frame a drive over 900 metres long bordered by avenues and leading from a quay on the east shore of the island to the palace.

The central axis of the palace, which ran almost exactly from east to west, had a further significance apart from its appearance: it symbolized the path of the sun, at the centre of which was the palace with the royal bedroom.

The Grand canal

The canal was completed in 1884 when it was connected with the lake.
During the two World Wars the gardens deteriorated still further: vegetables were grown in the flowerbeds, the Apollo basin was used as a cattle trough and the canal silted up.

Apollo Fountain

On the west side the two pools, the Latona Fountain, the two Flower Parterres and the Apollo Fountain formed a decorative scene with the canal sparkling like a mirror in the background.

It was not the intention of Ludwig II, to copy Versailles in detail. With regard to the gardens planned by the court gardens director Carl von Effner from 1875 onward, this meant that merely the garden area of the central axis had to be copied in detail.

This included the "parterre d'eau" towards the west, consisting of two large basins with the surmounted statues of Fama and Fortuna expressly requested by Ludwig II to highlight the mythological effect, the flower parterre with the Latona fountain and the "Grand Canal", in front of whose mirror surface an Apollo fountain was to rise up.

Latona Fountain

Restoration of the Herrenchiemsee Palace Park began in earnest in the 1970s, when first the Latona Fountain and then the two hunting fountains were renovated.

Reconstruction of the gravel ornamentation in the two Flower Parterres was started in 1985.

Fama and Fortuna Fountains

Since Ludwig II repeatedly gave orders for individual features to be completed as quickly as possible, there was a great deal of initial improvisation: pools lined with cement instead of marble.

Instead of installing lead figures on the fountains, occasionally the original (gilt) plaster models were used instead. The large horse model in the Fama group broke into pieces when it was being lifted onto its rock base.

Since the restoration of the Fama and Fortuna Fountains in 1994 and the large canal in 1996, the Herrenchiemsee gardens look much as they did in the time of King Ludwig II.

West side - Avenue

Ludwig II never set out to produce an exact copy of the Versailles complex. For space reasons alone, the main focus was on those parts of the garden that were visible from the most important rooms of the central palace tract - the State Bedroom and the Hall of Mirrors.

Visible from the bedroom, was the access avenue of 900 metres projected length in an easterly direction, at the lakeside end of which a boat landing stage was planned.

The central section of the gardens on the east side of the palace, the large drive also known as the "Avenue", was provisionally completed with a gravel surface and the rows of trees on either side in June 1885.

King Ludwig II Museum (cont)

Highlights of the museum include the magnificent furniture that originally stood in the destroyed royal apartment in the Munich Residenz and the first bedroom of Linderhof Palace.

The "royal residences" of Neuschwanstein Castle, Linderhof Palace and Herrenchiemsee Palace are represented as well as Ludwig II's other building projects.
Visit to the Ludwig II Museum ca. 30-45 minutes.