Скачать или смотреть The Dark Story of Ludwig II's Neuschwanstein Castle: The Mad King's $6 Million Fantasy

In 1869, King Ludwig II of Bavaria began building Neuschwanstein Castle—the fairy-tale palace that would inspire Disney—spending $6 million of the Bavarian treasury on a fantasy that had no political or military purpose, nearly bankrupting the kingdom to create a personal shrine to Richard Wagner's operas. Ludwig spent 172 days of construction funds in seven years while living increasingly isolated in the incomplete castle, surrounding himself with male servants and refusing to meet his own government ministers. In 1886, Bavarian officials declared Ludwig insane, arrested him at Neuschwanstein, and three days later both Ludwig and his psychiatrist were found dead in a lake in what was ruled a "murder-suicide"—but autopsy reports were sealed, the psychiatrist had defensive wounds, and Ludwig's body showed signs of strangulation. The castle was immediately opened to tourists to recoup costs, turning Ludwig's corpse into a revenue stream before it was even buried—and today, Neuschwanstein is Germany's most-visited castle, generating millions while the mystery of who killed the Mad King remains officially unsolved.