Padma Lakshmi Shares Travel Rituals, the Secret to Stress-Free Parties, and the Inspiration Behind Her Latest Cookbook The author expands on the stories and recipes from the award-winning "Taste the Nation" television series in her new book. Published on November 4, 2025 After showcasing the foods that make up American cuisine through the award-winning television series Taste the Nation,...

For young people on the isolated British Isles, travel has long offered an opportunity to broaden ones mind through encountering different cultures and ways of life. While many Brits nowadays travel far afield to find themselves, Europe was the place to go throughout the 17th to 19th centuries. As the cultural exchange between Britain and Europe developed, English literature changed too, reflecting the broadening landscapes of its authors: from travelogues informing readers about Renaissance Italy, to tales divulging the exploits of naughty nobles in exile. Read on to discover more about the Grand Tour.What Was the Grand Tour?Modern Rome Campo Vaccino, by Joseph Mallord William Turner, 1839. Source: Getty Museum Collection, CaliforniaIf you were a young British man of means between 1700 and 1900, chances are you would undertake some kind of travel on the Continent in your late teens or early twenties. This may not seem particularly noteworthy until we recollect that, in the preceding centuries, the only people likely to travel across Europe were merchants, diplomats, and monarchs (if we place pilgrimages, crusades, and wars in a separate category).Traveling solely for leisure purposes was uncommon except among royal families. It was not until the late 17th century that the idea of tourism, or undertaking a Grand Tour, began to catch on among wealthy nobles.The route and rationale of the Grand Tour fluctuated over the decades, starting off as a secularized form of pilgrimage that usually took in Rome and selected other Italian cities. On their way there, Grand Tourists would generally stop in Paris, another key destination.Both Paris and Rome were then, as today, centers of art and history, where these young men could gain an aesthetic education and, it was hoped, a moral one as well. Simply by mixing with people from another country, they would become more worldly and open-minded. The Grand Tour became like a finishing school: young men who had grown up learning about the Renaissance would top this off by going directly to the source.Shepherds beside Roman ruins, by Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem, 1661. Source: Wikimedia Commons / Gallery Prince Willem V, The HagueThe eminent critic and compiler of the English dictionary, Samuel Johnson, wrote: A man who has not been in Italy is always conscious of an inferiority, from his not having seen what it is expected a man should see. Johnson himself had never been on the Grand Tour, although his friend and biographer, James Boswell, had, so perhaps Johnson recognized this sense of inferiority all too well. By the mid-18th century, it was not just common but expected that young men would see Italy and its splendors.Were these places throughout France and Italy essential destinations purely due to the aesthetic education they offered? As the Grand Tour became a recognized tradition, it gained other connotations, particularly because of British perceptions about the southern regions of Europe. At the same time, as Italy was a desirable destination for wealthy young men, it was also the target of xenophobic attitudes in Britain, partly because it was a staunchly Catholic country, while Britain had by now been Protestant for over a century.Caricatures in the British press represented Southern Europeans as more permissive, even lascivious, than Brits. Increasingly, young men were drawn to the Continent as a haven for things they might not get away with at home. Extramarital affairs, drinking to excess, homosexuality: all these could be enjoyed on holiday and not be brought home to endanger their upstanding reputations. Although less explicitly acknowledged than the aesthetic and moral education angle, the prospect of sexual adventure was an important draw of the Grand Tour for many young men.Laurence Sterne: An Early Literary Grand TouristLaurence Sterne, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1760. Source: Wikimedia Commons / National Portrait Gallery, LondonLaurence Sterne is best known for his sprawling picaresque novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, a comic and experimental biography of the title character. Book Seven, published in 1765, included a parody of the Grand Tour and of the genre of travel writing it spawned.A chapter about Calais takes the reader on a journey through the town with the narrator, seeing through his eyes as an impartial observer of this unknown terrain, taking note of architectural features and the habits of the locals. But by the time the narrator is traveling through Boulogne, he addresses us hastily, in broken sentences, as if he is on the move right at that second, and so we learn very little about the place. All he has to say about Montreuil, meanwhile, revolves around an innkeepers daughter.Sterne had thus already satirized travel writing, with its mixture of awestruck discovery and condescension, by the time he came to write A Sentimental Journey through Paris and Italy, published in 1768. He was partly responding to fellow author Tobias Smolletts Travels through France and Italy, published in 1766, which included meticulous detail of each town Smollett encountered. Smolletts account chimed with contemporary xenophobic attitudes, deriding the French and Italians as flighty, argumentative, and morally lax, and critiquing Catholic traditions.Scene from Laurence Sternes A Sentimental Journey, by William Powell Frith, 1841. Source: Victoria and Albert Museum, LondonSince 1768 was also the year Sterne died, leaving A Sentimental Journey unfinished, his hero Yorick (who had previously appeared in Tristram Shandy) never makes it to Italy. Instead, the book describes Yoricks travels through France, again taking in Calais and Montreuil before arriving in Paris and Versailles.Although Yorick goes on various adventures, on the whole A Sentimental Journey lives up to its title, providing a much less bawdy and less vituperative account than audiences might have come to expect from, firstly, Sternes looser approach in Tristram Shandy, and secondly, the reputation of the Grand Tour as bolstered by other works such as Smolletts. A Sentimental Journey trades more on pathos, suggesting the moral education to be gained from traveling and coming into contact with ways of life vastly different from ones own.Travel Guides, Misdemeanors, and Country HousesThe Orange Market, Venice, by James Holland, 1867. Source: Wikimedia Commons / Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York CityThe Grand Tour had three important legacies in English literature. As the example of Laurence Sterne suggests, authors began to look further and further outwards, over the seas, and to incorporate features associated with the genre of travel guides into their novels, poems, and plays. Readers might learn as much about a place from a text like A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy as from a text specifically produced to help tourists plan their travels.The travel guide remained closely associated with Grand Tour literature, as by the 19th century, the literary critic John Ruskin was producing works such as The Stones of Venice (1851-53). In the Grand Tour tradition, Ruskin had traveled to the Italian city to see for himself the decaying glories of Byzantine and Renaissance architecture.By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the idea of taking a travel guide on the Grand Tour was so commonplace it amounted to a literary joke. In E.M. Forsters novels Where Angels Fear To Tread (1905) and A Room With A View (1908), young women going abroad for the first time roam Italy clutching their Baedekers, a popular 19th-century travel guide.This marks these characters as curious, eager to become cultured, if a little naive, like their ancestor Dorothea Brooke in George Eliots Middlemarch (1871-72), whose honeymoon in Rome might have benefited from a Baedeker, to save her becoming so conscious of the gulf separating her from her intellectual, unworldly husband, Reverend Casaubon.Portrait of E.M. Forster, by Roger Fry, 1911. Source: Wikimedia CommonsFemale characters very rarely undertook the Grand Tour until Forsters time. Instead, fiction shows men enjoying the more permissive lifestyle they might encounter on the Continent. This line runs right through literature, from Sternes mostly innocent adventures to Lord Byron and William Beckford in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, both of whom chose Italy as a place of self-exile after scandals in Britain.Beckford, author of the Gothic novel Vathek (1786), was forced to leave his comfortable life in the landed gentry after a public scandal involving him and a boy. His Letters from Italy with Sketches of Spain and Portugal (1834) suggests the more relaxed attitudes in Southern Europe. In Portugal, he even had a relationship with a young male musician.Southern Europe continued to serve as a place of exile for British men embroiled in scandal long after the Grand Tour tradition had subsided. In Evelyn Waughs Brideshead Revisited (1945), Lord Marchmain resides permanently in Venice, conducting the affairs of his English country estate at a distance.Lord Marchmain lives with a younger woman, but Waugh was nonetheless drawing on the tradition of men such as Byron and Beckford. His real-life inspiration for Lord MarchmainWilliam Lygon, 7th Earl Beauchamphad left his country seat and position in government after being outed in the press, undertaking a not entirely voluntary Grand Tour around more liberal countries.Photograph of the Library at Castle Howard, from In English Homes, Volume 1, by Charles Latham, 1904. Source: Wikimedia CommonsCountry houses such as the fictional Brideshead Castle are another essential influence left by the Grand Tour on English literature. By the 20th century, the country house novel had become a genre in itself, but even before this, numerous novels in the English canonfrom the Bronts to Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, and Jane Austenare set in country houses of greater or lesser grandeur.A defining feature of the country house, following the institution of the Grand Tour tradition, was its collection of spoils from the lord of the manors travels. Sebastian Flyte, in Waughs Brideshead Revisited, chastises his guest Charles Ryder for being such a tourist as he looks in awe at the treasures accrued by the noble family.Young men went on the Grand Tour not only to see the paintings and sculptures of Renaissance Italy or ancient Greece, but increasingly to acquire these art objects, transforming the country house intoas many of them remain todaymore of a living museum than a home. Without the Grand Tour and its expectation that young noblemen would demonstrate their level of culture through their travels and acquisitions, the country house may never have become such an iconic setting for so many works of English literature.Lord Byron: Literatures Greatest Grand Tourist?Caption: Lord Byron, by Thomas Phillips, 1813/1835. Source: Art UKIf the Grand Tour left its mark on literature through both a sense of expanded horizons and a notion that Brits might find a more enticing, laid-back society abroad, then Lord Byron might be the best example of the Grand Tours influence on literature.Childe Harolds Pilgrimage (1812-18), the long poem which made Byron famous, narrates the travels of a hero who loathed [] in his native land to dwell, having made his way there through Sins long labyrinth, and resolves to leave for Europe (Byron 2004, canto 1, verse 4-5).As Harold roams through Spain and Portugal, Greece, Albania, Switzerland, and Italy, Byron creates the enduring image of the Romantic hero as an eternally unsatisfied wanderer. His reference to a pilgrimage in the title harks back to the Grand Tours historical connection with the act of going on pilgrimage, that is, traveling in order to find spiritual fulfilment.Fact and fiction were never far apart for Byron. The glorious Eden of Sintra in Portugal, in the first cantoor volumeof the poem, was one of Byrons destinations on his own Grand Tour in his early twenties (Byron 2004, canto 1, verse 28). Drawn further east than many Grand Tourists, Byron also went to Greece and Albania on this trip, furnishing further material for the first two cantos of Childe Harold, published in 1812.Byron as Don Juan, with Haidee, by Alexandre Colin, 1831. Source: MeisterdruckeBut by the time the fourth and final canto of Childe Harold came out in 1818, Byron was not just a former Grand Tourist like any other young nobleman: he was living in exile. After becoming infamous on several countshis poetry, his mounting debts, his tempestuous marriage and well-publicized affairs, and rumors of incest with his half-sisterByron left Britain in 1816, spending the remaining eight years of his life abroad.That summer, he was at the Villa Diodati in Geneva during the historic night which saw Mary Shelley come up with Frankenstein. Byron himself inspired another Gothic tale devised that night: The Vampyre, written by his physician, John Polidori. Like fellow Romantic poets Percy Shelley and John Keats, Byron was drawn to Italy, with its rich artistic and literary heritage.He passed riotous months in Venice, which languishes in dying glory, according to Childe Harold, but whose history still casts a spell on the traveler, reminding him how Venice once was dear, / The pleasant place of all festivity, / The revel of the earth, the masque of Italy! (Byron 2004, canto 4, verses 1 and 3). He lived in Ravenna, Pisa, and Genoa, immersed in the history, the culture, and various affairs with women and men.Byron also represents the decline of the Grand Tour tradition. As the Romantics died out on the ContinentKeats in Rome, Shelley off the coast of Italy, and Byron himself in Greece as a would-be champion of Greek independencethe dream of the Grand Tour died out too. Its idealistic but rather exclusionary notion of travel gave way to something more egalitarian and (often) disenchanted.Later Grand TouristsJulian Sands and Helena Bonham Carter in A Room with a View, directed by James Ivory, 1985. Source: Into Film / Goldcrest FilmsBy the late 19th century, the Grand Tour was referenced by authors with a full consciousness of the stereotypical and outdated ideas it was supposed to represent. Dorothea in George Eliots Middlemarch, the heroines in E.M. Forsters novels, the heroes in Henry Jamess novels: all are aware that they should be morally and aesthetically improved by their experiences on the Continent, even if they do not quite feel this way.Following 17th- and 18th-century authors depictions of Grand Tours, 19th-century authors inherited a broader set of horizons, and interest in the culture and history of Revolutionary Paris, Renaissance Italy, or ancient Greece only grew. The medieval Italian poet Dante (like Byron, a former resident of Ravenna) was rediscovered in 19th-century English literature, while John Ruskin and Walter Pater drew on their own Grand Tours to revive critical interest in Renaissance painting, sculpture, and architecture.As both travel and reading material became easier to afford for ordinary people, not just the nobility, the experiences of both reading about European art and culture and seeing it firsthand ceased to be an exclusive privilege. It is no longer compulsory for young noblemen (and only young noblemen) to travel abroad to widen their horizons and blow off some steam. However, this does not mean that the Grand Tour has gone away. Literary depictions of its typical destinations have only made readers more intrigued to visit themselves and tread in the footsteps of literary giants.BibliographyByron, George Gordon (2004). Childe Harolds Pilgrimage. Project Gutenberg edition.

If any figure epitomizes the extremes of German Romanticism in the 19th century, it could be Ludwig II, who ascended to the throne of Bavaria aged 18. Rather than engage with traditional kingly dutiesall the more pressing as Bavarias political position came into questionLudwig devoted his reign to building dreamy castles. One of them, Neuschwanstein, has become iconic for inspiring the Disney castle. But he could not live in a fairytale forever.Bavaria in the Nineteenth CenturyHohenschwangau Castle seen from Neuschwanstein Castle, by Abelson, 2007. Source: Wikimedia CommonsLudwig II was born in 1845 into the ruling family of Bavaria, then one of 39 states making up the German Confederation. Most of these were consolidated into the German Empire following wars between Austria and Prussia in 1866 and France and Prussia in 1871, in which several German statesincluding Bavaria, under Ludwigs ruleacted as allies to Prussia.Situated in the south of Germany, Bavaria borders Austria and Switzerland, and is full of Alpine landscapes: mountains, valleys, lakes, and forests. Ludwig spent an idyllic childhood there, living primarily in Hohenswangau Castle near Fssen. It was the perfect location to stir the young boys imagination, and not just because of its geography: Ludwigs father, King Maximilian II, had built the castle along intricate Gothic lines and had it filled with frescoes depicting medieval German tales. One of these tales, of Lohengrin or the Swan Knight, would become especially dear to Ludwig.Germany in the early 19th century had been the cradle of Romanticism, a cultural movement that prized flights of the imagination. Philosophical, literary, and artistic works by figures such as the Schlegel brothers, Novalis, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, Heinrich von Kleist, and E.T.A. Hoffmann celebrated the powers of the artistic genius.They contrasted the artists ability to feel deeply with the cold reason of ordinary, unimaginative people. To undertake an endeavor in the name of art, no matter the cost and no matter how ridiculous it may seem to prosaic outsiders, was made noble thanks to Romanticism. It was an exalted, idealistic view of the world that Ludwig II of Bavaria would espouse passionately.Ludwig II: The Young KingState portrait of King Ludwig II of Bavaria, by Ferdinand Piloty, 1865. Source: Wikimedia Commons / King Ludwig II Museum, GermanyIn 1864, Ludwigs father died, leaving him King of Bavaria aged 18. Maximilian had prepared his son for this through a regime of grueling instruction in royal duties, but it was nevertheless a surprise for Ludwig to come to the throne at such a young age. The regime imposed by his father, with whom he had never been particularly close, left Ludwig uninterested in much of the public show that comes with being a monarch.Despite his preference for seclusion, Ludwig was popular with Bavarians. He was reported to be a daydreamer who spent hours rambling in the mountains, but this suited the Romantic image of what princes ought to be like. He idolized William Tell, the mountain-dwelling revolutionary of Swiss folklore.In common with many in Europe at this time, he viewed ancient Greek society and culture as a model for modern life, and eschewed military parades in favor of music and the theater. He found a fellow fan of Ancient Greece in the composer Richard Wagner, striking up a long and significant friendship.Herrenchiemsee Castle, by Hansueli Krapf, 2006. Source: Wikimedia CommonsThe other model for Ludwigs reign was Frances Louis XIV. It was not lost on him that he had been named after Saint Louis IX, patron saint of Bavaria, on whose feast day Ludwig was born. This connection spurred Ludwigs enthusiasm for French monarchs, particularly the extravagant Sun King, Louis XIV.His love of William Tell clearly did not strike Ludwig as being at odds with his admiration for an absolute monarch. Ludwig envisioned himself as the Moon King, imitating the great ruler of the Ancien Rgime through lavish displays of wealth, taking pleasure in pursuing luxury, spending days sequestered in his palaces and nights carousing by the light of the moon.The Romantic RulerPortrait of King Ludwig II and Richard Wagner, German school, undated. Source: MeisterdruckeLudwigs reign was characterized by a paradox. He despised public life and being the center of attention, but possessed a wealth of characteristicsgood looks, a love of the arts, a taste for patronage, conspicuous eccentricities, and wealth itselfwhich made people inclined to pay attention to him. It was said that, in his youth, he had his hair curled every day, and when he grew old enough to be asked to put on a helmet to participate in the royal military, he declined on the grounds that it would ruin his hair.He avoided state dinners, preferring (so one story went) to dine with his favorite horse. While these largely benign rumors swirled, more damaging reports circulated about Ludwigs sexuality. Like any monarch, he was under pressure to marry and produce an heir; he was also a fervent Catholic. Both factors made his attraction to men a source of turmoil.It is possible that Ludwigs feelings for Richard Wagner, whom he not only befriended but invited to his court and bestowed years of patronage, went deeper than artistic admiration. Although Wagner was 51 and embroiled in an affair with Cosima von Blow (the married daughter of fellow composer Franz Liszt) when the 18-year-old king invited him to Bavaria, Wagner desperately needed the support offered by Ludwig. He recognized in the young ruler a fellow Romantic who could appreciate his works and would be devoted, come what may, to getting them staged.Ludwig II and Duchess Sophie, by Joseph Albert, 1867. Source: The AtlanticFor over a decade, the pair exchanged admiring letters, and Ludwig assisted in getting Die Meistersinger, Tristan und Isolde, and the Ring cycle premiered. He lent Wagner money to build his ambitious festival theater at Bayreuth, sharing the composers dedication to reviving the spirit of medieval Germany through architecture.It is unsurprising that, when Ludwig did attempt to comply with the expectations laid on him by getting engaged, he could only find the idea palatable by imagining it in Wagnerian terms. In 1867, he was betrothed to his cousin, Duchess Sophie, a fellow Wagner enthusiast.However, Ludwig could not bear the pressure of the impending marriage, repeatedly postponing it, and ultimately ending the engagement later the same year. In a letter of lament, he addressed Sophie as Elsa and referred to himself as Heinrich; the names are taken from Wagners Lohengrin, which recounts Ludwig IIs beloved Swan Knight legend.Conflicts and Castle-BuildingNeuschwanstein Castle under construction, by Joseph Albert, 1886. Source: The AtlanticWhile Wagner built the theater at Bayreuth, Ludwig spent even more money on his own architectural endeavors. Like Bayreuth, these projects were to usher in a new age of greatness for Germany, inspired by medieval myths and legends, like those Wagner put on stage in his operas, but imbued with a 19th-century Romantic spirit.The castles at Neuschwanstein, Linderhof, and Herrenchiemsee were inspired by Wagner and Louis XIV. Each was a passion project personally overseen by Ludwig, who wrote to Wagner as work at Neuschwanstein began: It is my intention to rebuild the old castle ruin of Hohenschwangau near the Pllat Gorge in the authentic style of the old German knights castles, and I must confess to you that I am looking forward very much to living there one day.In fact, Ludwig ended up living at Linderhof, which was begun in the same year as Neuschwanstein (1869) but finished earlier, in 1878. The palace at Linderhof was modeled on Versailles, complete with neo-Rococo architecture and pristine gardens. It was also dotted with references to Wagner, with a hut imitating the one used in Die Walkre (part three of the Ring cycle), a hermitage resembling the one seen in Parsifal, and a Venus Grotto based on Tannhuser.The Venus Grotto at Linderhof Castle, by Softeis, 2005. Source: Wikimedia CommonsNeuschwanstein was also Wagnerian, down to its very walls. Ludwig employed set designers, rather than architects, to work on the interior, with several rooms adorned with frescoes depicting scenes from Tristan und Isolde, Parsifal, Tannhuser, and Lohengrin. The castles exteriornestled among the imposing Bavarian Alpsis just as impressive and instantly became an iconic tribute to the fairytale imagination when its likeness was used for Disneys Sleeping Beauty Castle.As Ludwigs most ambitious project, however, involving the building of an entirely new palace between the ruins of two medieval castles, Neuschwanstein took longer than anticipated. Ultimately, Ludwig only lived there for a matter of months.By the mid-1880s, Ludwigs idiosyncrasy had lost its charm. Twenty years of rule by a fairytale prince had left Bavarians disillusioned, their mountains dotted with half-finished castles and their prospects uncertain. Ludwig may have used his own money, rather than state funds, for his architectural projects, but still, it was hardly beneficial for a monarch to be heavily in debt. He continued to neglect state business, and his ministers set about deposing him on the grounds of madness.Ludwig IIs Mysteries: Madness and DeathPhotochrome of the Throne Room at Neuschwanstein, based on a photograph by Joseph Albert, 1886. Source: Wikimedia Commons / The Library of Congress, Washington DCWhen any historical figure is said to have been mad, we have to consider the time and place in which they lived and how this conditioned their diagnosis: what were the norms in their society from which they apparently deviated? Moreover, how did that society treat those it considered mad, and what motivations might there have been for interpreting their behavior as such?In Ludwig IIs case, the ministers and physicians who produced a report on his madness certainly had a motivation: to remove him from the throne for the good of the state of Bavaria. They contacted various insiders at Ludwigs court, and then passed this information to four psychiatrists for corroboration.As a recent study has pointed out, none of these doctors examined Ludwig, and only one of them had even met the king: neurologist Bernhard von Gudden, who wrote in the report that Ludwig was teetering like a blind man without guidance on the verge of a precipice.The evidence was that Ludwig avoided the public, holed up in his study concocting grand architectural plans, rambling through the mountains, or demanding that theatrical performances be put on for his sole enjoyment. His treatment of those around him could be erratic, with occasional outbursts of petulance or anger.Most importantly for late 19th-century doctors preoccupied with hereditary degeneration, Ludwigs younger brother, Otto, suffered from bouts of debilitating mental illness. This was sufficient for the government to agree, in June 1886, that Ludwig should vacate the throne.Photochrome of the Singers Hall at Neuschwanstein, based on a photograph by Joseph Albert, 1886. Source: Wikimedia Commons / The Library of Congress, Washington DCDespite the ensuing scuffle, Ludwig was unable to drum up enough protection from the local police and civilians at Neuschwanstein to prevent him from being taken into custody by the authorities, including Dr. Gudden.What happened next remains shrouded in mystery. Gudden, who was now overseeing Ludwigs care, accompanied him on a walk around the grounds of Berg Castle, near Munich, where he had been transported. When they failed to return that evening, the search party found both mens bodies in nearby Lake Starnberg. Although the water around them was shallow, barely waist-deep, they seemed to have drowned.Although the official ruling was that Ludwig had drowned himself, the political scramble just prior to his death has led to other theories. Perhaps he was trying to escape his newfound captivity and accidentally drowned in the process. Perhaps there was some kind of struggle between the king and the doctor.Memorial cross at Lake Starnberg. Source: iStockSome maintained that Ludwig was murdered. Fishermen at the lake apparently reported hearing gunshots, suggesting that assassins killed Ludwig and then Gudden, who was a witness. This does not quite align with the fact that no gunshot wounds were found on Ludwigs body, while Guddens body showed signs of a blow to the head and strangulation. But then, the drowning theory is also questionable, since the autopsy found no water in Ludwigs lungs.Decades later, a Bavarian countess would regale guests with her familys theory about what happened, and bring out a grisly heirloom: the coat in which Ludwig had died, with two bullet holes in its back. As recently as 2011, a German man in his 60s swore that he had seen this coat on a visit to the countess in his childhood, and joined several others in calling for a post-mortem on Ludwigs body. In a further twist of fate, though, Ludwigs coat cannot be scrutinized as evidence: it was lost in a fire, along with the countess herself, in 1973.Ludwig IIs LegacyNeuschwanstein Castle, by Thomas Wolf, 2013. Source: Wikimedia Commons, Thomas Wolf, www.foto-tw.de (CC BY-SA 3.0 DE)This fairytale king left behind a series of enigmas, from his dreamlike life to the mystery of his death. He was a crowning figure in a century which, in Germany especially, had been characterized by exaltation of the imagination and the power of art. A Romantic poet could hardly have written a better character. His story is a reminder of our tendency to romanticize the fine line separating genius and insanity.Ludwig II of Bavarias brother, Otto, succeeded him in 1886, but never actively ruled due to his poor mental health. Neuschwanstein Castle was never finished exactly as Ludwig had wished, but was completed in a simplified form by the 1890s. Although Ludwig had wanted the palace all to himself, it was opened to the public just six weeks after he died and has generated vast tourist revenue ever since.The grand building, with its striking mountainside location and ambitious neo-Gothic interiors, is an architectural feat and testament to Ludwigs extraordinarily single-minded vision. It symbolizes the highs and lows of Ludwigs reign: an icon of fairytale enchantment and a visual reminder of the obsessive nature that caused his downfall.Ludwig II, by Joseph Albert, 1864. Source: Wikimedia CommonsLudwigs identification with the Swan Knight Lohengrin, only furthered by the kings untimely death in a body of water, has become a key part of the fairytale which now surrounds him. The unworldly Prince Siegfried, in Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovskys ballet Swan Lake, could be a descendant of Ludwig.Along with his castles, Ludwig lives on in Richard Wagners operas, which are staged every year at Bayreuth and around the world and may have languished as a footnote in music history if not for the kings patronage. Ludwig and Wagner appeared in an 1881 novel, Le roi vierge, by the poet Catulle Mends, and ever since, the king has inspired novels, films, and even board games and video games, in which players can take part in Ludwigs grand architectural projects for themselves.

Bournemouth UniversityThe ancient Celtic teenager, believed to be a victim of human sacrifice, that was discovered in Dorset, England.While excavating an ancient Celtic site in Dorset, England, a team of archaeologists recently came upon a 2,000-year-old skeleton that had been buried in an unusual position: face down in a pit, hands likely having been tied, and without any grave goods.Although the gender of this person has yet to be confirmed, researchers believe the deceased was likely female, based on previous similar discoveries in the area. The strange positioning of the body recalls the nearby ancient burials of a teenage girl discovered in 2024 and another young adult female burial found in 2010.All three, believed to sacrifice victims, were found as part of an ongoing archaeological project focused on learning more about the Celtic Durotriges tribe.These burials reveal fascinating new insights into the history of pre-Roman England. A study published in Nature in January 2025 examined evidence found within burials from the Celtic Durotriges tribe that indicated they were a matrilocal community that is to say, one in which a married man moved to live with his wifes community.But these three seemingly sacrificial burials suggest that not all Celtic women were held in high regard.The Matrilineal Structure Of Celtic Tribes In Pre-Roman EnglandWhen the Romans first arrived in Britain 2,000 years ago, many were shocked to find that the Celtic tribes who were living there often structured themselves around women and their families, as opposed to the more patriarchal model of Rome. The evidence of this relative importance of Celtic women can be seen even today, thanks to what they left behind in their graves.As the studys authors noted, many Celtic womens graves featured substantial grave goods, pointing to their high status in society. But such evidence alone isnt necessarily enough to confirm that this was a matrilocal society.So, to investigate further, the researchers analyzed 57 ancient genomes from Durotriges burial sites and found an extended kin group centered around a single maternal lineage.In southern England in particular, researchers noted a strong matrilocality thanks to the presence of a single, rare mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroup among more than two-thirds of related individuals.Since mtDNA is passed from mother to child, this served as an indicator of a long-term community structured around the female line. In contrast, the Y chromosome (male line) diversity was high, suggesting males moved into females home communities, likely as spouses.Bournemouth UniversityThe nearby burial site of an ancient Celtic woman in which many valuable grave goods were uncovered.These findings corroborate Roman accounts of their encounters with the Celts as well. One Roman historian wrote, for example, that among the Celts the tasks of men and women have been exchanged, in a manner opposite to what obtains among us.They Romans were shocked at how the Celts organized society. But until now, many modern historians dismissed their accounts as exaggerated or even propaganda.[The Romans] wrote about it because they found it so weird, Trinity College Dublin geneticist Lara Cassiday told Science.Women are staying close to family and are embedded in the support network theyve known since childhood. Its the husband whos coming in as a stranger and is dependent on the wifes family.Bournemouth University archaeologist Miles Russell pointed to the grave goods as further proof of this: If you judge social status by burial goods, then female burials have vastly more than male.But the Celtic emphasis on women as the backbone of social organization only makes these three unusual burials of young females all the more baffling. So, why were these girls and young women buried in such a bizarre and macabre fashion?Celtic Female Sacrifice Victims Were Likely Disposable Young WomenEven in a society that emphasized the important place of women, not all women received equal treatment. A social hierarchy still existed, and some women were unfortunately at the bottom of it particularly those who were not from the area or were unrelated to the ruling families.The first of these newly-studied Durotriges burials of young women and girls was found in 2010 and has now undergone a full analysis. The second burial, a teenage girl found in 2024, and the newly-unearthed third body, believed to be a teenage girl, have yet to receive the same level of study.Still, there is some insight to be gleaned from these. There was, for instance, a notable lack of grave goods at each burial site. And of course, there was the strange position of the bodies.Bournemouth UniversityThe teenage Celtic girl unearthed nearby in 2024.This has the sense of a body thrown into a pit, with hands potentially tied at the wrist, Russell told Live Science, regarding the most recent discovery. We think shes a she, although we havent had a chance to assess the DNA yet in order to clinch it.Russell added that these women were likely considered low-status and disposable, though the actual reasoning behind their sacrifice was not made clear. As Russell said, We are at a loss to know what socio-politico-environmental factors triggered the practice.Still, the discovery of multiple sacrifices indicates the practice was at least somewhat common.Perhaps DNA analysis will provide more insight. Russell said that he and his team plan to investigate this new burial as well as the 2024 find to try and uncover any signs of trauma or disease, as well as the girls diets and places of origin. Maybe then well learn more about how and why they were killed some 2,000 years ago.After reading about these Celtic burials, learn more about Celtic history through the stories of 11 creatures from Irish folklore. Then, meet Cernunnos, the horned god of Celtic myth.The post Archaeologists In England Just Unearthed The Remains Of An Iron Age Teenager Who Was Likely Sacrificed By Their Celtic Tribe appeared first on All That's Interesting.

Nintendo has released its first financial results that include information about the Switch 2, and the attach rate for Mario Kart World is staggering, with nearly everyone owning both.

Code in the first iOS 26.2 beta hints at a new feature that will make AirDrop more private by allowing users to set PIN codes when users connect devices.

Amazon won't allow agents on its site that don't identify themselves as such. Perplexity is not pleased.

As per MarkNtel Advisors The GCC Bathroom & Kitchen Sanitary Fittings Market size was valued at around USD 615 million in 2024 and is projected to reach USD 971 million by 2030. Along with this, the market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of around 7.91% during the forecast period, i.e., 2025-30. GCC Bathroom and Kitchen Sanitary Fittings Market Systems Market Outlook: The Russian...

As per MarkNtel Advisors The Middle East & North Africa Ozone Generator Market size was valued at around USD 66.25 million in 2024 and is projected to reach USD 98.29 million by 2030. Along with this, the market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of around 6.80% during the forecast period, i.e., 2025-30.  Middle East & North Africa Ozone Generator Market Systems Market...

In this episode, the Common Core Diva Lynne Taylor joins me as we look at just what the feds are doing now to control education, along with the usual suspects at the United Nations. Buy All-American!