Unlike the Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty castles in the U.S. parks, Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant (Sleeping Beauty Castle) at Disneyland Paris was designed with a more whimsical, "storybook" aesthetic. Because Europe is already home to thousands of real, historic castles (like Neuschwanstein, which inspired the original Disneyland castle), Disney Imagineers felt a realistic castle would look "ordinary" to European guests. Instead, they looked to medieval illustrations and the French illuminated manuscript Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry. They also drew inspiration from the Mont Saint-Michel abbey for its dramatic silhouette and the spiral trees found in the 1959 Sleeping Beauty film. The castle features square-shaped "trees" and unique architectural touches like golden snails on the spires (a nod to French gastronomy). In 2026, it remains the only Disney castle with a resident Audio-Animatronic dragon (La Tanière du Dragon) located in a cave beneath the structure, adding to its legendary status as the most aesthetically distinct and "fairy-tale" of all the Disney royal homes.