It was a rocky year for Hong Kong Disneyland. The park closed in January 2020, reopened in June, closed again in July, reopened in September, and then closed again in December. It reopened once more in February 2021.

During that time, though, something extraordinary was going on behind the scenes — Disney Imagineers were building a NEW castle for the park! That castle, now known as the Castle of Magical Dreams, opened to guests in November 2020.

New details have surfaced about the castle, which is the first of its kind. Disney castles typically only represent one princess and have one specific theme. The Castle of Magical Dreams, though, represents many of Disney’s heroines and celebrates them in a completely new way.

Thanks to CNN, we got some more insight on this gorgeous castle. The base of the new castle was the existing Sleeping Beauty Castle, but Disney built on top of that to create something more magnificent. New towers were added to represent different royal women and heroines from Disney’s movies including Aurora, Mulan, Merida, Pocahontas, and more!

The details of each tower tie into the heroine it’s dedicated to — for example, you can see Mushu on Mulan’s tower and Celtic artwork on Merida’s tower. Many of these additional embellishments were carved by hand!

Even more impressive? Disney Imagineers did all this work while keeping the park open to guests. The castle was built using a modular structure system so that each big piece was completed elsewhere, and then later added to the castle. In the end, by adding these pieces ON TOP of the existing castle, it made the castle over twice its original height!

There are also columns inside the castle dedicated to each heroine’s companions and friends, including Mushu, Merida’s bear brothers, Flounder, Pua, Hei Hei, and more. Beautiful stained glass windows are found throughout. It’s a castle not just of Magical Dreams, but MANY dreams!

Hilcia Pena, a senior architect at Walt Disney Imagineering said, “We’re understanding different parts of the world, so we can’t just focus on one group, or one princess or one location,” said Pena. “Our stories continue to grow, and we get to learn about different cultures around the world. So how do we put that into the buildings and stories we try to tell?”

The Castle of Magical Dreams is representative of multiple cultures and the heroines that represent them, and it’s truly incredible work from Disney Imagineers. But did we expect any less of Disney? We’ll let you know if we get any other details about the new Hong Kong Disneyland castle!

Check Out This Lunar New Year Recipe from Hong Kong Disneyland!

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The post The Story Behind Disney’s Newest Castle! first appeared on the disney food blog.