Tom`s travels: February 2024

On a late November weekend I took a train really early in the morning from Berlin and after a few hours reached the Bavarian capital Munich. Once there, I left the main station and headed on foot to visit the city center. The day was cold, cloudy, and gray, and later it would also snow a bit throughout my time there. I first stopped at the tourist office to buy the Munich City Pass which cost 29,9 euros and grants access to all city museums. From there I then passed by the Karlsplatz, the first square one comes across from the station as one heads towards the old town. Here they had set up a small Christmas market, one of many scattered throughout town, and an ice skating rink. Instead of heading straight through the center, I walked along the main street that follows the outline of what were once the medieval walls that surrounded Munich. At its southwestern edge, I reached the Sedlinger Tor, one of three surviving gothic city gates. Right in front of it was another small Christmas market which I walked through and then passed under the city gate. I continued on along the wide street, Sendlinger Straße, sided by some nice buildings and palaces reconstructed after WWII. Halfway up the street I then reached and entered the Asamkirche, a beautiful baroque church from 1746 dedicated to St John Nepomuk. Despite having scaffolding covering the facade, the interior was marvelous to look at, narrow and tall with marble and gildings all over its altars and walls and a frescoed ceiling. Moving onwards I reached a small square, the Rindermarkt, where yet another Christmas market was set up. On its eastern side was the Lion's Tower, a 25m high 14th-century medieval tower. A little further ahead I then reached and entered the church of St Peter, one of the largest in the city and with an iconic 91m high tower known as the Alter Peter. Its interior was large, tall, and bright, in a typical 17th-century baroque fashion, refurbished after the damage of WWII. Despite its appearance, the church is actually much older, dating to the 12th century, and thus probably the oldest in town. I had a walk around the inside, admiring the side altar but not the main one as it was covered in scaffolding. Behind the church was another one, the of the Holy Spirit, a single-hall church also dating to the 18th century in a baroque style. It was unfortunately closed so I moved on, passing by the gothic Old Town Hall from 1480 with

the former Talburgtor of the first city wall serving as its tower. On the other side of the building I then reached the central and large square, the Marienplatz, at that time covered with Munich's main Christmas market. To the north of the square stood imposing the huge New Town Hall built at the end of the 19th century in a neogothic style with a tall 85m high central tower. I intended to visit it so I headed to the tourist office right below it where I got my free ticket, with the city pass I bought in the morning, and then headed inside to catch the elevator up. Once there I was alone and understandably so as it was windy and stinging cold. It just started showing lightly and that made the view even nicer. From the top I could see the whole city, but unfortunately not the Alps close by to the South due to the low clouds. Once back down at street level I left the square and reached the Frauenkirche, the city's largest church and its cathedral. Built in a gothic style in the 15th century over a pre-existing Romanesque church it features two twin towers reaching both 98m and topped with Renaissance domes. The interior, spacious and airy, features some nice gothic altarpieces as well as a large 1620 painting of the Annunciation by Peter Candid once on the main altar but now moved to the northern side of the nave. The main highlight of the church is the tomb monument of the Holy Roman Emperor, Louis IV. After the visit to the church, I continued on my walk through the city. As it was cold and I didn't really have time to take breaks I ate the sandwich and vegetables I had brought with me while walking. Shortly after I reached the Alter Hof, the former imperial residence of Louis IV, built around a central courtyard and with several buildings and wings spanning from its original construction in the 12th century to the 19th century. My walk then led me past the Hofbräuhaus, a beer hall built in 1589 by Bavarian Duke Maximilian I as an extension of the famous brewery Staatliches Hofbräuhaus in München. A little further I passed through a small square, the Platzl, and then reached the large Max-Joseph-Platz where the National Theatre, Palais Toerring-Jettenbach, and Königsbau of the Munich Residence are located. The former is a historic opera house originally built at the beginning of the 19th century, while the Palais is a rococo mansion from 1747 with a portico in imitation of Florence's Ospedale degli Innocenti. The latter is one of the many buildings that form the former royal palace of the Wittelsbach monarchs of Bavaria, and its facade on the square is an imitation of Palazzo Pitti in Florence. I decided to visit this former royal palace and headed on to the main entrance of the complex. There was a short line but it moved quickly, yet the interior was quite filled with people. I got in again thanks to my city pass and ended up spending quite a lot of time to visit it all as the place was huge, and Germany's largest city palace. Once inside I started out with the Treasury, founded by Duke Albert V it houses the jewels of the Wittelsbach dynasty in about ten halls of the eastern wing of the Königsbau. Among the collection were some important and rich objects such as the altar-ciborium of Emperor Arnulf of Carinthia from 890, the crown of the Empress Cunigunde from the 11th century, an English Queen's crown from around 1370, and many others. After the visit to the treasury, I continued through the museum, following the arrows that led me to the Ancestral Gallery, a beautifully ornate baroque hallway with gilded panels enclosing over 100 portraits of members of the Wittelsbach family. Next up was the Grotto Courtyard, commissioned at the end of the 16th century by Duke Wilhelm V in imitation of Renaissance-style gardens. It features a beautiful grotto built of tufa and adorned with colorful shells and crystals. From there a doorway then led me to the highlight of the palace, the long and wide Antiquarium, or Hall of Antiquities, built between 1568 and 1571 for the collection of Duke Albert V, and the largest Renaissance hall north of the Alps. It housed the Ducal Library until 1581 and was later remodeled into a banqueting hall. It features a painted vaulted ceiling and lunettes with 102 views of towns, markets, and palaces in what was then the Duchy of Bavaria. Furthermore, there are several busts along the sides of ancient Roman emperors and important figures once belonging to Duke Albrecht V’s collection. At that point, a staircase led me to the upper floor where I strode through several rooms part of the Electoral Rooms, refurbished during the 18th century in a rococo style. After that, I saw the Court Church of All Saints, built from 1826 to 1837 following a visit to Palermo by King Ludwig I when he was still Crown Prince in 1823, where he had been so impressed by the Norman-Byzantine Palatine Chapel dating from the 12th century that he expressed the desire to have a similar church building in the Residence. Originally decorated with colored frescoes on a gold ground, and the walls with colored stucco marble, it was then damaged irreparably during WWII and now none of the decorations survive. After that, were a series of rooms remodeled in 1814 by Princess Charlotte Auguste, and thus named Charlotte Rooms. Onwards a series of rooms built in 1612-1616 under Maximilian I, are today named Treves Rooms, after the Elector and Archbishop of Trier, who stayed there frequently in the 18th century. At the end of those on the northern side of the complex was the Imperial Staircase, a wide, magnificently decorated flight of stairs completed in 1616 and featuring images glorifying the noble ancestors of the Wittelsbach dynasty. The staircase then opens into the the Imperial Hall, which was also built under Maximilian I at the beginning of the 17th century and in this period was the largest and most important room in the Residence for festivities and a place of utmost ceremonial importance. Next up were the so-called stone rooms, again built at the same time, in the early 17th century, taking their name from the extensive use of marble, stucco marble, and stucco marble inlays in their decoration. A door then led to the gallery of the 17th century Court Chapel, and then on to a smaller yet lavish chapel, called the Rich Chapel from 1607 decorated with particular magnificence using colored marble and gilt reliefs and used as the private place of worship of Duke Maximilian I and his wife. Continuing onwards I still had several rooms, Up next were the Ornate Rooms, designed and furnished from 1730 to 1733/37 by the architect François Cuvilliés, and a highpoint of the court Rococo style. Among them, the nicest were the Green Gallery, with over 70 paintings, arranged above one another in tiers of three and alternating with tall mirrors, and the Bedchamber, which rather than an actual bedroom was conceived solely in terms of its symbolic significance as the place for the electoral dressing procedure. Moving onwards to the newer part of the palace, I walked through the Royal Apartments, built during the early 19th century by King Ludwig I in a typical neoclassical style. A series of smaller rooms were next, exhibiting the collection of silverware and porcelain of the royals. Finally, back downstairs I concluded the visit to the huge complex with the so-called Nibelungen Halls, also built for King Ludwig with scenes from the Nibelungenlied, seen as the epitome of German epic poetry. With a separate entrance but on the same ticket I was then able to visit the Cuvilliés Theatre, which I reached after heading out of the palace and back in through the Fountain Courtyard. It was built in 1755 by François Cuvilliés the Elder for Elector Maximilian Joseph III, to become his new opera house reserved exclusively for members of the court. Despite being bombed during WWII, its beautiful painted wood carvings and other tier fittings had been removed to safety in 1943 and they are all that survive of the original theatre. Finally, my visit to the Residence was complete, and I headed out through the Imperial Courtyard which was filled with a beautiful Christmas market. Once back out in the street, a short walk brought me to the Odeonsplatz. This whole area, developed during the 19th century, reminded me so much of Florence, despite the thick snowflakes falling. In fact, it was designed by Leo von Klenze with the known love of Italy by King Ludwig I. To the south of the square sits the Feldherrnhalle, a monumental loggia clearly modeled on the Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence. To the west, the Theatine Church, built from 1663 to 1690 in a baroque style with a large airy whitewashed interior featuring lavish altars. At that point, it was time to visit a few more museums, also included in the city pass. I walked quickly westwards and eventually reached the large Königsplatz, developed in the 19th century in a Neoclassical style. On its western side is the Propyläen Gate and, to the north and south facing each other, the Glyptothek and Staatliche Antikensammlungen. I started out with the latter, featuring collections of antiquities from Greece, Etruria, and Rome. The collection was rather small but still nice. Crossing the square I then entered the other museum, which contains sculptures dating from the archaic age, around 650 BC, to the Roman era, around 550 AD. Also small it had some really nice works of art. After that, it was time for the last museum and my last stop in Munich, the Alte Pinakothek. Covering the period from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century it holds some important and famous Old Master paintings. I saw many works by famous Italian artists like Raphael, Titian, Lott, etc, as well as other masterpieces by Flemish, Dutch, and German artists such as Rubens, Bruegel the Elder, Rembrandt, and Dürer. Another nice feature was the temporary exhibition "Venezia 500" centered on paintings by Venetian artists. Furthermore, there were a couple of rooms that held some highlights from the nearby Neue Pinakothek which at the time was under restoration. After my visit, it was time to go. However, I still had time for a walk through the city center, passing once more by the main monuments, including the Marienplatz with its lit-up Christmas market, now filled with people. Eventually, back at the main station, I grabbed a burger to take with me on the train, and on I was for the long journey back to Berlin.