h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Villa Ludwigshöhe

So let's move away from the early middle ages and look at something more opulent, more modern, more fun.

King Ludwig I (1786 – 1868) was a great romantic. He was a fan of Wagner and did a lot towards promoting that composer's fame, and built lovely castles. He also had a "scandalous" affair with a dancer called Lola Montez (who's worth an entry of her own) and he loved the Palatinate with its exotic climate and endless vineyards and forests. His marriage to Princess Therese of Saxony started the tradition of the Oktoberfest.

The Palatinate was part of the Kingdom of Bavaria in those days. Ludwig became King in 1825.

So he built a palace in the middle of the woods in the style of houses he had seen in Italy. To this day, it is a gorgeous building, perfectly placed for visiting on foot, where you can include it in a hike, ending ideally with a wine-tasting in one of the nearby villages.

The views from the balconies across the hills and vineyards are wonderful, especially in the Autumn, and nowadays, the large reception rooms are used for concerts and the inevitable café is decorated as in the period.

The villa contains many marble pillars and dramatic staircases, huge ballrooms and is still equipped with furniture and household items.

There are permanent exhibitions of paintings and ceramics, and mannequins with uniforms and costumes of the time. A classical stately home.

You can go on guided tours, but they are not just any guided tours -these are theatrical performances. Unfortunately only in German. The King himself will take you through the rooms, remembering his times with Lola Montez, and before that with his wife, Therese, his meetings with Napoleon and his abdication in 1848 (due to his by then public affair with Lola)

Because the Villa dates only back to the middle of the 19th Century, the kitchens and bathrooms are particularly interesting for today's visitors, with their early technology.

This little gem in the woods is really worth a visit. Failing that, there are a few pictures on the website, which, otherwise, is only in German. Sorry.

http://schloss-villa-ludwigshoehe.de/index.php?id=filmimpressionen

Warning - this link starts straight off with music.

If Ludwig can come back from the dead for the benefit of tourists, why can't Lola and Therese?

[Amy P]

Lola was re-created in a film in 1955. I went to see it at a special showing recently - they had found lots of scraps of it in Paris and pieced it together again.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048308/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_78

It was quite breathtaking, although it didn't really dwell on the Ludwig I part of her story much.

There was a Q and A afterwards.

Deb

A most fascinating Irishwoman, Lola Montez.