| Herrenchiemsee , Bavaria, Germany. |
| Sunday, 01 November 2009 21:21 |
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Herrenchiemsee is a complex of royal buildings on the Herreninsel, an island in the middle of the Chiemsee, Bavaria's largest lake, 60 km south east of Munich. Together with the neighbouring island of Frauenchiemsee and the uninhabited Krautinsel it forms the municipality of Chiemsee. The Augustine Monastery Herrenchiemsee, later converted into the Old Palace (Altes Schloss), and Herrenchiemsee Palace, also known as the New Palace (Neues Schloss), are the most famous of these buildings and the largest of King Ludwig II of Bavaria's palaces. The unfinished New Palace was designed by Christian Jank, Franz Seitz, and Georg Dollman and built between 1878 and 1885. Between 1863 and 1886 a total of 16,579,674 Marks[1] was spent constructing Herrenchiemsee. An 1890 '20 Mark' gold coin contained 0.2304 troy ounce (7.171 g) of gold. Therefore, 16,579,674 Marks would equate to 190,998 oz of gold, which at recent gold prices (March 2007) is worth approximately £70,500,000GBP or (August 2007) $125,400,000 USD.Ludwig only had the opportunity to stay within the Palace for a few days in September 1885. After his death in the following year, all construction works discontinued and the building was opened for the public. In 1923 Crown Prince Rupprecht gave the palace to the State of Bavaria. Herrenchiemsee was one of the featured locations in the 1995 computer game The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery, set in Bavaria with a storyline heavily involving Ludwig II and Wagner. |
| Last Updated on Sunday, 01 November 2009 21:29 |
