Hohenschwangau Castle sits on a wooded hilltop above Lake Alpsee in the Bavarian Alps. It's greatest claim to fame is what it inspired rather than what it is. The castle has served as a seat of power since the twelfth century, but by the early 1800s it had fallen into ruin.

In 1832, Crown Prince Maximilian came across the ruins during a journey through the area, bought them, and rebuilt the castle in a romantic Gothic Revival style. He named it Hohenschwangau, meaning "the high swan district."

From 1837, it became the royal family's summer residence. Maximilian's son Ludwig spent his boyhood summers here, standing in the flower garden and gazing up at the forested hill above. He dreamed of building his own fairytale castle on that hill. He eventually did: it became Neuschwanstein, the most visited castle in Germany and the inspiration for Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tour visits both castles, tracing the childhood that shaped Ludwig's obsessions, his doomed reign, and the mystery of his death in the lake below at the age of forty.