Alpsee near Hohenschwangau

The Alpsee lies nestled between Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein castles and is regarded as one of the cleanest lakes in Bavaria. A barely one-hour shore path circles the clear mountain lake before the castle backdrop. In summer, bathing spots and rowing boats beckon, and year-round the proximity to the royal castles.

Highlights

• Very clear lake before the castle backdrop
• Shore loop in barely an hour
• Bathing and rowing boats in summer
• Right by Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau

Good to know

Practical info

Background & History

The Alpsee lies nestled between wooded slopes immediately below the two famous royal castles of the Allgäu and, with its clear, cool water, is regarded as one of the cleanest bathing lakes in Bavaria. Its basin formed in the Ice Age, when the glaciers shaped the landscape and left behind deep hollows. Long before the castles became landmarks, the still body of water was a secluded retreat, whose surface catches the reflection of the surrounding mountains. Above it thrones Hohenschwangau Castle, which King Maximilian II of Bavaria had rebuilt in the first half of the 19th century from a medieval ruin into a neo-Gothic summer residence and adorned with romantic murals from the world of legend.

Within these walls his son, the later King Ludwig II, spent part of his childhood, surrounded by images of old heroic legends that lastingly shaped his imagination. These impressions later flowed into his own building dreams, above all the Neuschwanstein Castle opposite, which he had built as an embodiment of chivalric romance. Thus the landscape at the Alpsee became the stage of one of the most famous and most tragic biographies of the 19th century. Whoever stands on the shore today looks upon a setting in which Bavarian royal history, romantic enthusiasm for the Middle Ages and almost untouched mountain nature flow inseparably together.