|
 Cinderella's Castle
The crown jewel and
centerpiece of the Magic Kingdom.
Your Gateway to the Magic Kingdom! The symbol of Walt Disney World,
Cinderella's Castle is probably the most photogenic object of all the parks.
Cinderella's castle is directly tied into
Fantasyland, giving Fantasyland the look of a festive medieval
tourney. Most of its ride entrances are like tents against the Castle's
walls.
Facts:
 Cinderella Castle is 189 feet tall & is made out of
fiberglass.
Construction of the castle began in late 1969.
Herbert Ryman began with a charcoal sketch, which he developed into a
painting. He used several French castles for his inspiration, among them
Chambord, Usse, and Chenonceau. Inspiration also came from the classic Walt
Disney animated feature Cinderella.
It
took 18 months to build the castle.
Six hundred tons of steel were used in the framework.
Imagineers sculpted exterior and interior walls to resemble solid granite.
There are 10 towering spires on the castle.
Contrary to myth, the castle cannot be, nor has it ever been, dismantled in
the event of a hurricane.
Inside Cinderella Castle, space for an apartment for
the Disney family was designed & built inside the castle's upper floors, but
it has never been completed or used.
Finishing touches to the castle included Cinderella's mice friends carved
into decorative columns and the Disney family crest in stone above the
breezeways.
What's inside the castle? A shop selling glass & crystal ornaments, & a
restaurant Cinderella's Royal Table (formerly King Stefan's Banquet Hall).
A
series of mosaic tile murals adorn the walls in the entry corridor. The
murals, designed by imagineer Dorothea Redmond and executed by mosaicist
Hanns-Joachim Scharff, tell the story of Cinderella in five 15-by-10-foot
panels.
"The bricks [not
real] in Cinderella castle get smaller at the top section to make the castle
look bigger"
|
