Schloss Elmau, built by the philosopher and theologian Johannes Müller between 1914 and 1916, is a four-story national monument with hipped roof, tower and porch, situated between Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Mittenwald in a sanctuary of the Bavarian Alps, Germany. It lies at the foot of the Wetterstein mountains in a Naturschutzgebiet (nature reserve), belonging to the Krün municipality.

In the early hours of 7 August 2005 a fire broke out in the Schloss, caused by a faulty electric blanket belonging to the former manager, Ducci Mesirca. The fire destroyed nearly the entire top floor of the main building, although there were no serious casualties. The hotel has since been rebuilt.

The five-star hotel today offers 123 rooms and suites, as well as a concert hall and several restaurants. The Schloss Elmau Retreat features 47 suites. The hotel is a forum for renowned international conferences and meetings. It is a member hotel of The Leading Hotels of the World.

Schloss Elmau was the site of the 41st G7 summit on June 7–8, 2015, which the German government announced on January 23, 2014.

Schloss Elmau

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Das Schloss Kranzbach ist ein unter Denkmalschutz stehendes Gebäude bei Klais in der Gemeinde Krün in Oberbayern. Es befindet sich auf einem Plateau mit einer alpinen Kulisse und wird als Wellness-Hotel genutzt.

Geschichte

„The Honourable Mary Isabel Portman“ aus London, die Erbauerin von Schloss Kranzbach, war eine reiche Aristokratin – eine für damalige Verhältnisse unabhängig agierende Frau. Mit 36 Jahren unterzeichnete sie 1913 den Kaufvertrag über die „Kranzbachwiese bei Garmisch“. Die Baupläne lieferten die englischen Architekten Detmar Blow und Fernand Billerey in der Stilrichtung der englischen Arts and Crafts-Bewegung. Das Haus wurde 1915 fertiggestellt. Schloss Kranzbach ist das einzige Gebäude dieser Art in Deutschland. Das „Englische Schloss“, wie die Anlage bald von den Einheimischen genannt wurde, erinnert mit ihren Treppengiebeln an die natursteingemauerten Country Houses (üppig ausgestattete Landhäuser) in Schottland und Irland. Das Areal umfasste einen privaten Konzertsaal und einen Rasentennisplatz.

Der Erste Weltkrieg machte die Pläne Mary Portmans zur Errichtung eines gastlichen Hauses für ihre Künstlerfreunde zunichte. Portman kehrte nie dorthin zurück, möglicherweise sah sie das fertige Gebäude nie.

In den Folgejahren belebten unterschiedlichste Gäste das einsame Objekt im Elmautal. Junge Kunstmaler blieben wochenlang, um die Schönheit der Landschaft auf Leinwand zu bannen. Im Jahre 1929 reiste ein Filmteam der Deutschen Universal-Film an, um hier zu drehen. 1931 entdeckte die evangelische Kirche Dortmund auf der Suche nach einer Erholungs- und Freizeitstätte für junge Leute aus dem Ruhrgebiet das Haus und pachtete es von den Erben Mary Portmans.

Weihnachten 1933 brach ein Brand aus, der das Haus stark beschädigte. Nach der Renovierung war Schloss Kranzbach wieder ein beliebtes Ferienziel für Jugendliche. Es wurde als Übernachtungsquartier während der Olympische Winterspiele 1936 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen genutzt. In den ersten Jahren des Zweiten Weltkrieges war Schloss Kranzbach Zielort für das Programm der „Kinderlandverschickung“. Nach dem Kriegsende wurde das Schloss als Erholungshotel für Offiziere der US-Armee genutzt. 1947 nahm die evangelische Kirche Dortmund hier wieder ihren Ferienbetrieb auf. Wilhelm Dieterle drehte 1955 Szenen des Films Das Schweigen im Walde nach dem gleichnamigen Roman von Ludwig Ganghofer.

Ende 2003 verkaufte die Kirche das Schloss an die jetzigen Hotelbetreiber. 2007 wurde das Areal unter dem Namen „Das Kranzbach“, um einige Gebäude erweitert, als Hotel eröffnet. Die Inneneinrichtung im englischen Stil stammt von der britischen Architektin Ilse Crawford.

Schloss Kranzbach

The King's House on Schachen (German: Königshaus am Schachen) is a small castle (Schlösschen) at Schachen, Wetterstein mountain massif, about 10 km south of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Bavaria, Germany, built by Ludwig II of Bavaria. The castle was constructed between 1869 and 1872. It can only be reached by a three- to four-hour hike, either from Elmau or Garmisch-Partenkirchen, and provides a view of Zugspitze.

The King's House on Schachen was built between 1869-1872 to designs by architect Georg von Dollmann. It is often described as a hunting lodge, though Ludwig never used it for this purpose, instead utilizing it for birthday and anniversary celebrations. The building is the least-known of the palaces built by Ludwig. One room (known as the "Turkish Room") occupies the entire upper-floor of the castle, and is elaborately decorated in an Oriental fashion. The extravagant upstairs interior stands in stark contrast to the exterior and ground floor, which are rather modest.

Adjacent to the house itself is the Alpengarten auf dem Schachen (1 hectare), an alpine botanical garden maintained by the Botanischer Garten München-Nymphenburg which cultivates over 1,000 plant species from the Alps to the Himalayas.

King's House on Schachen

The ruins of Werdenfels Castle (German: Burg Werdenfels) stand about 80 metres above the Loisach valley between Garmisch and Farchant in the county of Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Upper Bavaria. The spur castle was used until 1632 as the administrative centre of the County of Werdenfels, but began to fall into disrepair thereafter.

The castle ruins are freely accessible and are a popular hiking destination with a good view of Garmisch-Partenkirchen and the Wetterstein Mountains.

The castle is located at an elevation of 795 m above sea level (NN) northwest of Garmisch-Partenkirchen on an eastern spur of the Kramerspitz in the Ammergau Alps. It stands about 80 metres above the valley floor and is easy to reach on well-signposted paths. The rocky terrain falls steeply from northwest to southeast into the valley, whilst southwest of the castle the land climbs rapidly. This typical castle situation enabled long-distance surveillance of the important trading route in the valley, but it was not possible to protect it directly as the castle was just too far away.

The foundation date of the castle has been hotly disputed in castle research circles. However, it was probably built between 1180 and 1230. Its owner and the purpose of the original fortification are also unknown.

In 1249, ownership of the fortress was transferred to the Prince-Bishopric of Freising and it was occupied with guardians (Burghütern) or governors (Pfleger). In 1294 Count Berthold III of Eschenlohe gave the Bishopric part of his county and was appointed as the castle guardian. After the creation of Freising territory, the County of Werdenfels, the castle served as the administrative and jurdical centre. However, not all governors took up residence in the castle. The county was generally regarded as "the best part of the Imperial Principality of Freising" (Carolus Meichelbeck). It supplied "chamois and red deer venison and game... wood, marble" that could be transported on the rivers Isar and Loisach directly to the cathedral town.

In the 15th century, Freising had to enfeoff the castle several times due to financial difficulties. The structural condition of the castle seems to have deteriorated to the beginning of the 17th century such that the governor's seat was moved in 1632 into a new administrative building on the Wang. From 1676 the fortress was exploited as a quarry. For example, numerous stone blocks from castle were re-used for the new baroque parish churches of Farchant and Garmisch.

As part of the seizure of church land in the Napoleonic era, the castle and county went to the Kingdom of Bavaria. Its population of roughly 5,000 which had hitherto enjoyed imperial immediacy found it difficult at first to get used to their new masters. An 1806 document by a Munich official complains that "many Werdenfelßer still have no Bavarian heart!"

In 1822 the Bavarian privy council, Ignaz von Rudhart, acquired the ruins, since when it has been privately owned.

In 1905-06, the walls were secured and partially rebuilt. After the tops of the walls were secured in 1961/63, further restoration finally began in 1986; this has continued sporadically since.

The construction material for the castle was the local limestone, which was quarried in the Schlosswald ("Castle Wood") above the fortification. Of interest here are the remains of six ring-shaped lime kilns which were archaeologically investigated in 1997.

To the south and west a shallow neck ditch guards the position. The approximately square, elevated inner ward (27.6 × 24.8 metres) has two outer wards to the north and west dating to the 14th and 15th centuries.

The bergfried rose at or over the northwestern corner of the inner ward, but was completely demolished around 1728/30 leaving a pile of rubble today. The tower was also used in the 15th and 16th centuries as a gaol. Better preserved are the north side and an internal wall of the palas (24.8 × 11.4 metres) and the stonework of the two outer wards with its – largely renovated – 'Mittertor ("Central Gate").

The partially preserved north wall of the palas is pierced on the ground floor by three large pointed arches whose actual function remains a puzzle.

In its last phase of expansion, the castle was probably more of an administrative seat than a fortification and would not have withstood a serious siege for very long. The wall thicknesses only average about 90 centimetres and the main direction of attack was not reinforced or protected by flanking towers. The most defensible part of the castle was the high medieval bergfried of which little is known apart from a few 17th and 18th century illustrations.

Werdenfels Castle's weaknesses as a fortification had been noted by castle researcher, Otto Piper. He recognised that the fortress "so far as the remaining walls are concerned, conspicuously lacks the positions and facilities for a sustained defence“. As a result of his research he finally came to the conclusion that the ruins "no longer correspond to the older castle".

The associated domestic yard lay to the south, below the castle in the valley roughly where the old district office (Amtshaus) is today (Schwaige Wang).

Werdenfels Castle

Linderhof Palace (German: Schloss Linderhof) is a Schloss in Germany, in southwest Bavaria near Ettal Abbey. It is the smallest of the three palaces built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria and the only one which he lived to see completed.

Ludwig already knew the area around Linderhof from his youth when he had accompanied his father King Maximilian II of Bavaria on his hunting trips in the Bavarian Alps. When Ludwig II became king in 1864 he inherited the so-called Königshäuschen from his father, and in 1869 began enlarging the building. In 1874 he decided to tear down the Königshäuschen and rebuild it on its present-day location in the park. At the same time three new rooms and the staircase were added to the remaining U-shaped complex, and the previous wooden exterior was clad with stone façades. The building was designed in the style of the second rococo-period. Between 1863 and 1886 a total of 8,460,937 marks was spent constructing Linderhof.

Although Linderhof is much smaller than Versailles, it is evident that the palace of the French Sun-King Louis XIV (who was an idol for Ludwig) was its inspiration. The staircase, for example, is a reduction of the famous Ambassador's staircase in Versailles, which would be copied in full in Herrenchiemsee. Stylistically, however, the building and its decor take their cues from the mid-18th century Rococo of Louis XV, and the small palace in the Graswang was more directly based on that king's Petit Trianon on the Versailles grounds. The symbol of the sun that can be found everywhere in the decoration of the rooms represents the French notion of absolutism that, for Ludwig, was the perfect incorporation of his ideal of a God-given monarchy with total royal power. Such a monarchy could no longer be realised in Europe in the second half of the nineteenth century. The bedroom was important to the ceremonial life of an absolute monarch; Louis XIV of France used to give his first (lever) and last audience (coucher) of the day in his bedchamber. In imitation of Versailles, the bedroom is the largest chamber of Linderhof Palace. By facing north, however, the Linderhof bedroom inverts the symbolism of its Versailles counterpart, showing Ludwig's self-image as a "Night-King."

The location of the palace near Ettal Abbey again presents another interesting point. Because of its architecture Ludwig saw the church of the monastery as the room where the holy grail was preserved. This fact connects the idea of a baroque palace to the one of a "medieval" castle such as Neuschwanstein and reminds of the operas of Richard Wagner whose patron Ludwig was.

Linderhof, in comparison to other palaces, has a rather private atmosphere. In fact, there are only four rooms that have a real function.

This room was used by the king as some kind of living room. He enjoyed sitting in the niche, sometimes reading there the whole night. Because Ludwig II used to sleep in the daytime and stay awake in the night, the mirrors created an unimaginable effect for him when they reflected the light of the candles a thousand times. The parallel placement of some mirrors evoke the illusion of a never ending avenue.

Appointments:

The middle table has a top with lapis-lazuli, amethyst and chalcedony inlay work and shows the Bavarian coat of arms in glass mosaic.

A carpet made of ostrich plumes.

An ivory candelabra in the alcove with 16 branches.

Two mantelpieces clad with lapis-lazuli and decorated with gilded bronze ornaments.

The two tapestry chambers are almost identical and have no specific function. The western one is sometimes called "Music Room" because of the aeolodion (an instrument combining piano and harmonium) in it. Only the curtains and the coverings on the furniture are real products of the Parisian Gobelin Manufactory. The scenes on the walls are painted on rough canvas in order to imitate real tapestries.

The audience chamber is located to the west of the palace and is flanked by the yellow and lilac cabinets. The cabinets were only used as antechambers to the larger rooms. Ludwig II never used this room to hold an audience. This would have been against the private character of Linderhof and the chamber would have been much too small for it. He rather used it as a study where he thought about new building projects. That there is an audience chamber in Linderhof, however, reminds us of the demand of the king on an absolute monarchy.

Appointments:

Two round tables with malachite tops, gift of Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia to King Ludwig II.

Throne baldachin with ostrich feather bunches (as an oriental symbol of royal power).

This room is located to the east and is flanked by the pink and blue cabinets. The pink cabinet, unlike the other cabinets, had a real function. The king used it as a robing room. The dining room is famous for its disappearing dumb-waiter called "Tischlein deck dich". This table was installed so that Ludwig could dine alone here. Yet the staff had to lay the table for at least four persons because it is said that the king used to talk to imaginary people like Louis XV, Mme de Pompadour or Marie Antoinette while he was eating. For Ludwig II enjoyed the company of those people and admired them. You can find portraits of them in the cabinets, and scenes of their lives everywhere in the palace's rooms.

Appointments:

Meissen porcelain centrepiece with china flowers.

The model for this room was not Louis XIV's bedchamber in Versailles but the bedroom of the Rich Rooms in Munich Residence. This room was completely rebuilt in 1884 and could not be totally finished until the king's death two years later. The position of the bed itself on steps in the alcove that is closed off by a gilded balustrade gives it the appearance of an altar and thereby glorifies Ludwig II as he slept during the day.

Appointments:

A glass candelabra with 108 candles.

Two console tables of Meissen porcelain (which was the king's favorite china).

The gardens surrounding Linderhof Palace are considered one of the most beautiful creations of historicist garden design, designed by Court Garden Director Carl von Effner. The park combines formal elements of Baroque style or Italian Renaissance gardens with landscaped sections that are similar to the English garden.

Deriving from the romantic image of animated nature Ludwig was fascinated by trees. For this reason a tall, 300-year-old linden tree was allowed to remain in the formal gardens although disturbing its symmetry. Historic pictures show a seat in it, where Ludwig used to take his "breakfast" at sunset hidden from view amongst the branches. Contrary to common understanding the tree did not give the palace its name. It came from a family called "Linder" that used to cultivate the farm (in German "Hof" = farm) that over centuries had been in the place where now Linderhof palace is.

The palace is surrounded by formal gardens that are subdivided into five sections that are decorated with allegoric sculptures of the continents, the seasons and the elements:

The northern part is characterized by a cascade of thirty marble steps. The bottom end of the cascade is formed by the Neptune fountain and at the top there is a Music Pavilion.

The centre of the western parterre is formed by basin with the gilt figure of "Fama". In the west there is a pavilion with the bust of Louis XIV. In front of it you see a fountain with the gilt sculpture "Amor with dolphins". The garden is decorated with four majolica vases.

The crowning of the eastern parterre is a wooden pavilion containing the bust of Louis XVI. Twenty-four steps below it there is a fountain basin with a gilt sculpture "Amor shooting an arrow". A sculpture of "Venus and Adonis" is placed between the basin and the palace.

The water parterre in front of the palace is dominated by a large basin with the gilt fountain group "Flora and puttos". The fountain's water jet itself is nearly 25 meters high.

The terrace gardens form the southern part of the park and correspond to the cascade in the north. On the landing of the first flight there is the "Naiad fountain" consisting of three basins and the sculptures of water nymphs. In the middle arch of the niche you see the bust of Marie Antoinette of France. These gardens are crowned by a round temple with a statue of Venus formed after a painting by Antoine Watteau (The Embarkation for Cythera).

The landscape garden covers an area of about 50 hectares (125 acres) and is perfectly integrated in the surrounding natural alpine landscape. There are several buildings of different appearance located in the park.

Venus Grotto
The building is wholly artificial and was built for the king as an illustration of the First Act of Wagner's "Tannhäuser". Ludwig liked to be rowed over the lake in his golden swan-boat but at the same time he wanted his own blue grotto of Capri. Therefore, 24 dynamos had been installed and so already in the time of Ludwig II it was possible to illuminate the grotto in changing colours.

Hunding's Hut
This hut was inspired by Richard Wagner's directions for the First Act of the "Valkyrie". Ludwig used to celebrate Germanic feasts in this house.

Gurnemanz Hermitage
Ludwig came here for contemplation every year on Good Friday. For this day he wanted a flowering meadow. If there was no such meadow because there was still snow lying, the garden director had to plant one for the king.

These three structures, the "Venus Grotto", "Hunding's Hut" and "Gurnemanz Hermitage" remind us another time of the operas of Richard Wagner. But besides that and the baroque architecture Ludwig was also interested in the oriental world.

Moorish Kiosk
This building was designed by the Berliner architect Karl von Diebitsch for the International Exhibition in Paris 1867. Ludwig II wanted to buy it but was forestalled by the railroad king Bethel Henry Strousberg. Ludwig bought the pavilion after the bankruptcy of Strousberg. The most notable piece of furniture of this building is the peacock throne.

Moroccan House
This house was actually built in Morocco for the International Exhibition in Vienna 1873. The king bought it in 1878 and redecorated it in a more royal way.

Linderhof Palace

Das Schloss Murnau befindet sich im Markt Murnau am Staffelsee im oberbayerischen Landkreis Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Das Murnauer Schloss ging aus einer Burg hervor; heute befindet sich darin das Schloßmuseum Murnau. Es ist ein eingetragenes Baudenkmal.

Geschichte

Das Schloss Murnau wurde in den Jahren 1991 und 1992 zu einem Museum umgebaut, wobei auch archäologische und bauforscherische Bestandsuntersuchungen durchgeführt wurden. Durch die Publikation der Untersuchungsergebnisse kam das Murnauer Schloss in den Ruf, die „besterforschte Burg Bayerns“ zu sein.  Für die frühere Burganlage und das spätere Schloss wurden mehrere Bau- und Umbauphasen ermittelt.

Älteste Burganlage

Das Fälldatum eines Holzbalkens konnte aufgrund von Bodenfunden sowie mit Hilfe der Radiokarbonmethode und der Dendrochronologie für den Winter 1232/33 datiert werden. Daraus ergab sich im Untersuchungsjahr 1992 für die Existenz eines ersten Baues folgerichtig eine Datierung in die erste Hälfte des 13. Jahrhunderts.

Zehn Jahre später wurde dieses Datum durch die Entdeckung verschiedener Urkunden vorverlegt. Unter anderem wurde im Bayerischen Hauptstaatsarchiv eine Urkunde vom 5. April 1322 entdeckt, die nahelegt, dass zum damaligen Zeitpunkt Otto von Eurasburg als Vogt seinen Amtssitz bereits in der Murnauer Burg hatte. Dabei handelte es sich offensichtlich um einen Wohnturm, der nur wenig später mit einer Umfassungsmauer umgeben wurde.

Östlich davon konnte eine Kapelle ergraben werden, auf deren nördlicher Seite mehrere Menschen ohne Särge und ohne Grabbeigaben bestattet worden waren. Bereits die Untersuchungen von 1992 ergaben, dass die Kapelle und die Gebeine aus dem 11./12. Jahrhundert stammen.

Die neuerlichen Grabungen von 2009/10 bestätigten die frühe Datierung mit einer Bauabfolge für die Gesamtanlage, die „mit Fund und Befund ins 12. und womöglich sogar ins 11. Jahrhundert zurückreichen.“ Die Chronologie der Frühzeit wird gestützt durch Keramikfunde, die mit sogenannten „romanischen Leistenrändern“ und „gotischen Kragenrändern“, die auf der „langsam drehenden“- beziehungsweise auf der „fußbetriebenen Töpferscheibe“ gefertigt wurden.

Der ehemals viergeschossige Wohnturm ist zu großen Teilen heute noch im Westflügel des Schlosses erhalten. Im Grundriss ist er mit Abmessungen von ca. 13 × ca. 14 Metern nahezu quadratisch. Zugänglich war das Gebäude ursprünglich im dritten oder vierten Geschoss über eine Holztreppe. Als Besonderheit konnten Schiebefenster bzw. -läden als originale Fenster von 1233 nachgewiesen werden, die „in Bayern wohl einmalig sind“.

Umbauten im 16. Jahrhundert

Für die Zeit zwischen 1233 und der ersten Hälfte des 16. Jahrhunderts wurden nur kleinere Bauarbeiten festgestellt. Umfassende Baumaßnahmen wurden 1539 eingeleitet. Mit dieser Jahreszahl, die man in einer Steinplatte im Südflügel des Schlosses eingemeißelt vorfand und die datumsmäßig von dendrochronologischen Untersuchungen flankiert wird, lassen sich der Baubeginn des heutigen großen Südflügels des Schlosses und ein kleiner nördlicher Anbau in Verbindung bringen. Die barocken Erweiterungsbauten des 16. Jahrhunderts prägen noch heute die Schlossanlage.

Die Anlage wurde seit der zweiten Hälfte des 14. Jahrhunderts bis zur Säkularisation 1803 vom Kloster Ettal als Amts- und Wohnsitz des Pflegers und als Gerichtssitz genutzt.

Umbau zum Schulhaus

Der bauliche Niedergang des Schlosses begann bereits vor dem Reichsdeputationshauptschluss und der Säkularisation von 1803, bei der unter anderem auch das Landgericht Murnau aufgehoben und Murnau dem Landgericht Weilheim zugeordnet wurde. Im Januar 1804 ersteigerte der Magistrat von Murnau den Südflügel des Schlosses, um ihn zu Schulzwecken mit Klassenzimmern und Lehrerwohnung umzubauen. In den 1860er-Jahren wurde auch der Westflügel für den Schulbetrieb gleichermaßen nutzbar gemacht.

Von 1804 bis 1980 existierte hier die Schule der Gemeinde Murnau.

Umbau zum Museum

1989 beschloss die Gemeinde Murnau, die über lange Zeit leerstehenden Räumlichkeiten des Schlosses zu einem Museum umzubauen, das die Besonderheiten der Murnauer Landschaft, seiner Geschichte, Volkskunde und Kunst darstellen sollte. Die in den Jahren 1991 und 1992 umgesetzte Museumskonzeption hat bis heute Bestand und gilt als sehr erfolgreich. Das 1993 eröffnete Schloßmuseum Murnau wurde für seine Konzeption und für seine ergänzenden Sonderausstellungen im Jahr 1995 mit dem Bayerischen Museumspreis ausgezeichnet.

