An alternative to Neuschwanstein: 13 fairy-tale castles in Italy and Europe

Since July 2025 Neuschwanstein has officially been a UNESCO World Heritage Site, part of the property "The Palaces of King Ludwig II of Bavaria." The recognition is deserved, but it has a predictable side effect: the castle that inspired Walt Disney already welcomes 1.4 million people a year, with peaks of over 6,000 a day in summer, timed-entry tickets and a guided visit clocked at 35 minutes. If the idea of a manor towering on a peak or of walls enclosing an entire village appeals to you more than the queue, this is a practical guide: fairy-tale castles and fortresses, in Italy and Europe, where the spell stays intact but the crush does not.

The most similar alternative

Let's start with the most literal alternative. In Tuscany, in the Valdarno, Sammezzano is a Moorish-Orientalist palace with stalactite halls, horseshoe arches and a Peacock Room that looks straight out of a Persian fairy tale: Ludwig II's eccentricity transplanted onto a hillside. It must be said upfront, in fairness: in 2025–2026 it's closed for the restoration begun by the new owners (with the Sammezzano Foundation created in November 2025), so put it on your list for the future and in the meantime enjoy the clay Balze around it.

For the "castle on a peak" that makes the postcard, Italy has few rivals. In Abruzzo, Rocca Calascio is the highest stone fortress in the Apennines, at 1,460 metres, reachable only on foot for the final stretch: at dawn the light slices across the round towers and below opens the plateau of Campo Imperatore. In Sicily, Sperlinga is carved directly into the sandstone spur, with staircases and rooms hewn from the living rock; and above Syracuse the Castello Eurialo is not medieval but Greek, the fortress of Dionysius, with moats and underground galleries you can walk through almost always alone.

Fortress-towns

If you're interested in the fortress-town more than the single manor, three stops are worth the trip. In South Tyrol, Glorenza preserves its 16th-century ring of walls complete with towers and ramparts, around a square with arcades: it's the smallest intact walled town in the Alps. In Piedmont, near Biella, the Ricetto di Candelo is a rare medieval fortress-village where peasants stored wine and harvests inside the cobblestone "cells": a labyrinth of stone lanes (the "rue"). In Campania, in upper Irpinia, Bisaccia sets the ducal castle alongside a stone village overlooking the Ofanto valley, rebuilt after the 1980 earthquake but still authentic.

Want to venture further into Europe? In Portugal, on the plateau of the Beira Alta, Almeida is a twelve-pointed star fortress on the Vauban model: from above it's a perfect geometry of bastions and moats, and you still enter through the Baroque tunnel gates. In Spain, in the province of Segovia, Maderuelo is a medieval walled village on a spur overlooking the Linares reservoir, with an arched gate leading in among houses of golden stone. And in Prague, for those seeking the fairy-tale atmosphere without the crush of the main castle, Nový Svět is the district of pastel lanes behind the Castle, where the astronomer Tycho Brahe once lived: the same stones, a hundredth of the tourists.

A glance at Ukraine

A separate mention for Ukraine: Kamianets-Podilskyi is perhaps the most scenographic fortress on this list, eleven stone towers on a rocky bend carved by the river Smotrych, a bridge connecting it to the old town. It remains a dream to mark down for when the situation allows: today travel to Ukraine is inadvisable because of the ongoing war.

For those who don't want to leave the city, even an urban castle can surprise: in Ferrara, behind the moat of the Castello Estense, the red-brick courtyards of the Este remain surprisingly silent just metres from the tourist flow. And in Sicily, on the Rocca di Cefalù, the megalithic walls and the so-called Temple of Diana crown the spur above the sea: not a castle in the strict sense, but the same idea of a natural fortress that dominates everything.

Practical tips

A few practical tips. The high-altitude castles (Rocca Calascio, Glorenza, Kamianets) are at their best from May–June to September–October, when the trails are dry and the light is long; in Sicily, spring and autumn avoid the heat. Always check opening hours and closing days before setting out: many of these sites are run by local volunteer associations or open on reduced schedules. And if you really do go to Bavaria, Linderhof and Herrenchiemsee, the other palaces of Ludwig now on UNESCO's list, are far less besieged than Neuschwanstein.

Sources on the Neuschwanstein figures: France24, Smithsonian Magazine; updates on Sammezzano: Save Sammezzano, Idealista.

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