Spires

Date: 2/2003
Location: Cinderella Castle, Fantasyland, Disney World
Comments: This shot was taken on the backside of the castle. Some facts I uncovered online: The castle is 189 feet tall & is made out of fibreglass. Construction of the castle began in late 1969 and took 18 months to build. 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. Six hundred tons of steel were used in the framework. 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.