Detail of the Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany

This is a real-life fairy tale castle but it isn't a real castle. The idea of a castle is fortification including a moat. This is called the Neuschwanstein Castle but it is really more a palace. The apparent fortifications are for show and design. Here is an explanation about why this lovely building and prototype for Walt Disney's trademark castle is really a palace. See Wikipedia: Neuschwanstein Castle.

Neuschwanstein Castle (German: Schloss Neuschwanstein, pronounced [ˈʃlɔs nɔʏˈʃvaːnʃtaɪn], Southern Bavarian: Schloss Neischwanstoa) is a 19th-century Romanesque Revival palace on a rugged hill above the village of Hohenschwangau near Füssen in southwest Bavaria, Germany. The palace was commissioned by Ludwig II of Bavaria as a retreat and in honour of Richard Wagner. Ludwig paid for the palace out of his personal fortune and by means of extensive borrowing, rather than Bavarian public funds.

The castle was intended as a home for the king, until he died in 1886. It was open to the public shortly after his death. Since then more than 61 million people have visited Neuschwanstein Castle. More than 1.3 million people visit annually, with as many as 6,000 per day in the summer.