The island, Herreninsel, in the lake Chiemsee was purchashed by King Ludwig II of Bavaria in September 1873. He then set about having a palace built imitating the splendor of Versailles as he had such a great admiration for Louis XIV of France. Louis had declared “L’etate c’est moi..” (I am the state) a concept that fired Ludwig’s imagination.

His palace the Herrenchiemsee was never completed and he only spent some twenty-four days there. The cost was enormous and he ran out of funds before the palace could be finished. A solitary man, who was declared insane, he drowned in Lake Starnberg on June 13 1886 in mysterious circumstances.

The palace remains as it was intended - a monument to monarchy.