1st Grade
Castles
Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany: is found on a rugged hill above the village of Hohenschwangau near Fussen in southwest Bavaria, Germany.
- The Castle's Name Means "New Swan Castle"
Construction began in 1868. King Ludwig moved into it in 1882
This is the bridge that you walk on to get the photo of the full castle. It's the only place to do that from. It is SCARY! Let me tell you the story...
When you go to see this castle, you have to start out on a trail that takes you to a wooden swing bridge that dangles over top of a rocky stream, in the middle of the forest of trees. You have no idea what you are going to see as you are walking on the path, or even when you start off onto that bridge. Once you are in the middle of the bridge, you get this perfect, beautiful, view of the entire, massive castle.
King Ludwig II ('Ludwig Otto Friedrich Wilhelm von Wittelsbach') was born on August 25, 1845- 1886
He was king of Bavaria from 1864 - 1886 He only lived in this castle for 186 days up to his death. This yellow castle is King Ludwig’s dad’s house. You can see how tiny Neushewanstein Castle looks up in the mountains.
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The palace was commissioned by King Ludwig II of Bavaria as a retreat. Ludwig paid for the palace out of his personal fortune and by means of extensive borrowing, rather than Bavarian public funds.
The castle was intended as a home for the King, until he died in 1886. It was open to the public shortly after his death. Since then more than 61 million people have visited Neuschwanstein Castle. More than 1.3 million people visit annually, with as many as 6,000 per day in the summer.
Disney World's Cinderella's castle. Walt Disney wanted it to have some of the same looks as Neuschewanstein Castle in Germany.
This is the view from the side of the castles windows. The builders of this castle studied the flow of air coming off of the mountains and put windows right in the places that would capture the cool airs coming from the mountain tops.
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This is King Ludwig's bedroom. He only slept here 11 nights before he passed away early in his life at age 41. Can you imagine sleeping here? It's so full of things to look at.
King Ludwig also didn't like to leave his bedroom. He felt safest there. He would even eat his meals in his room. The table that he sat at was designed to lower down into the kitchen below and then raise back up all stocked with food. That way he didn't have to leave his room to eat! |
What is a castle built of? What parts of a castle do you know? See if you can find these things in this fun video:
Stop at 4:48
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PARTS OF THE CASTLE:
A castle is built of stone. Many, many stones. Each castle has different parts that build up to create the entire castle. There are some castles that only have a few of the parts listed here, though.
Do you know what the top of the castle part is called... the part that goes up and down... it's called the Battlements. They are there so the person inside the castle can hide behind the "up" part and shoot out of the "down" part. Look at the windows... why would they look like that "t" shape? For their bow and arrow to fit in, right?
Do you know what is inside the turrets? Usually the steps.Alnwick Castle is a castle and country house in Alnwick in the English county of Northumberland. From the Harry Potter 1 and 2 movies, for the outside scenes.
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Can you find all of those parts in these castles?Look for the battlements, the turrets, flanking towers and curtain walls. |
One more thing to look at.... What color are windows when you color them in a picture? Did you notice they are "black"? Crazy, huh?
Here are some examples that aren't finished. Make sure you add bricks, windows, doors. Will your castle have turrets? Spires? Battlements? Add some stones or bricks for the material it's built out of. Then, add color. I'm going to use colored pencils so that I can get "into" all of those small spaces and color them nicely. I'm going to mix colors too, so that each brick looks interesting and it makes it look like there is shading and highlights on the bricks.