The World of Interiors

King Ludwig II of Bavaria began construction on Neuschwanstein Castle in September 1869 and died, under mysterious circumstances, seventeen years later, before his dream was complete. That hasn’t stopped some 80 million people from making the trek to the small Alpine village of Schwangau, Germany, to visit the unfinished fairy-tale palace that inspired Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty Castle. Not long ago, on an abnormally hot afternoon, I was finally among those hiking up the steep trail to behold the landmark in person.

While I have wanted to see Neuschwanstein since I was a child and have read about it in countless books, I was not prepared for its relative modernity: the telephones, the automatic toilets, the once state-of-the-art kitchen, the conservatory’s frameless glass door, the electric bell system that Ludwig used to summon his butler. Despite those impressive amenities — and despite the fact that this remains a nineteenth-century building — tourists...