Roseninsel:

Rose Island – Roseninsel – is an island in Starnberger See. It has a dimension of 6.4 acres and it is very idyllic with beautiful parks and gardens hiding a lovely small castle called Casino. The island is car-free. The sole island of the lake lies 186 yards off its western shore, across from the so-called path Glockensteg, which is located about halfway between Possenhofen and Feldafing.

Main attraction is the fully refurbished Casino, which hosts weddings regularly from spring to autumn. The Casino can be accessed from Tuesday to Sunday from noon to 6 pm. Another point of interest is the Garden House – Gärtnerhaus. The two-story building contains a museum. Entry is free. For the Casino guided tours are available. We are happy to arrange them for you.

The passage from Glockensteg to Roseninsel has to be booked in advance with the ferry-man. The oval rose garden – Rosarium – , located in front of romantic manor Casino is the home of hundreds of tall fragrant roses and houses a five meter high blue-white column of glass in its middle. The island was named after this exceptional rose garden. It is free to enter the well-kept, mostly recreative and quiet garden.

History of Roseninsel:

King Maximilian II. of Bavaria added two masterpieces of gardening to the already existing parks of the dynasty Wittelsbach in 1850 with Roseninsel and park Feldafing which was started 4 years later.
Park Feldafing, which was created by the later-to-be royal director of gardens Carl von Effner, gives beautiful impressions of the landscape framed by old oaks and beeches. Starnberger See and the mountain range of the Alps offer a picturesque background. The early passing of Maximilian II. in March 1864 stopped the construction of the summer castle, which was planned on a high ground in park Feldafing.

Reticent Roseninsel was used by the son of Maximilian, Ludwig II, for the reception of state visitors and socialites like Russian Tsarina Maria Alexandrowna and composer Richard Wagner. Ludwig also valued the island as a place for discreet meetings with minions. Also from time to time he would meet there with his imperial cousin Elisabeth of Austria.

Elisabeth, "Sissi", new the location well, she spent a good part of her youth at close by Castle Possenhofen. Still in later times she visited Feldafing in summer for many years and resided at hotel „Strauch“ (today hotel „Kaiserin Elisabeth“). She did the passage to the island almost every day, which makes her, except for the gardener, probably into the person who actually inhabited the idyllic hideaway for the longest time.
Elisabeths fondness of the romantic island was perhaps the main reason why Ludwig cultivated the place so diligently. An encounter between them was reenacted on Roseninsel by director Luchino Visconti in 1972 with actors Romy Schneider and Helmut Berger in the movie Ludwig II.