Of the towns and cities located on the shores of the Chiemsee, Prien is the most well-known. From Prien, ferryboats go to the three islands in the Chiemsee. A ferryboat is a Fähre. The most popular of the three islands in the Chiemsee is the Herreninsel. In 1878, King Ludwig II built a castle there. The name of the castle is Herrenchiemsee.
The other two islands are the Fraueninsel and the Krautinsel. The Chiemsee is the largest lake in Bayern. The Federal Republic of Germany has sixteen states, or Bundesländer, of which Bayern, also called Bavaria, is one.
King Ludwig II was known for building extravagant castles. Herrenchiemsee was intended either to be a copy of the famous palace of Versailles, or to be something even grander. It was never completed, and the king spent only ten days there during his short life. It is now open year-round to tourists. The Fähre trip from Prien to the Herreninsel lasts only about fifteen minutes.
From the Fähre to the palace, it's about fifteen or twenty minutes by foot. Arriving at the castle, one sees a large garden with seven fountains. A large marble fountain stands in front of the palace. Twenty of the castle's rooms are available to tourists. The palace also houses a museum about the short life of King Ludwig II. He lived from 1845 to 1886; he was king of Bayern, not king of all Germany. In fact, it was while Ludwig was king, in 1871, that the many different Germanic kingdoms were united to form one country, Germany.
This new country was ruled by an emperor, Wilhelm, and his chancellor, Bismarck. Ludwig was one of many regional kings under the emperor. Some history books refer to King Ludwig as King Louis, the Anglo-French version of his name. He supported music and the arts, but had to distance himself from the composer Richard Wagner, once the public learned of Wagner's bizarre opinions, some of which the king secretly shared. In 1886, he was declared insane, and died several days later. To this day, many scholars wonder whether his death was an accident, a suicide, or murder.
