Religion. It's in the name itself. Munchen is an old German version of "monk", and that's who founded the place. It's closer to the Italian border than to Berlin and has always shared emotional bonds with its southern neighbours. On a sunny day, parts of Munich are indistinguishable from Florence. Great religious houses were always drawn here, and throughout the Reformation this was a bastion of Roman Catholic defence against growing Protestantism elsewhere in Germany. That's why you'll find a disproportionate number of grand churches here, all worth your time. There are three chapels in the royal palace in the centre of town alone. Which leads us to...
Wittelsbachs. The family ruled the region, with Munich as their capital, from 1180-1918. They held an impressive variety of titles, including Holy Roman Emperor (twice) and king from Napoleonic times through the end of WW1. After which they retired ... as plain old dukes ... into civilian life. They were fabulously wealthy. Family ambition for those Holy Roman elections drove showy building booms in the 17th and 18th centuries. Desire to be a shining star of progressive, enlightened Europe did the same in the 19th.
Conservatism. When making decisions about rebuilding after the war, Frankfurt and London embraced modernity. Munich threw its resources into re-creating the treasures of its past; a process that still carries on today. Natives still dress conservatively (including regular donning of traditional lederhosen and dirndls), appreciate titles and often act with an old-world formality. This makes for a city best described as gracious and elegant.
Trade. You'd think the elements above would leave the Bavarians in the dust of modernity. Not so. These have been canny business people since the monks first started selling their beer to the traders crossing through here, and the first Wittlesbach of note made his fortune controlling the toll bridges capturing money from the traffic of the salt trade. While strict rules keep Munich's city centre an historic gem, it's ringed with modern office parks and factories employing workers in lucrative industries like high tech, automotive and pharmaceuticals. BMW's glittering HQ, the space-age Allianz arena and the Olympic Park all show off how the Muncheners' eye for business keeps them prosperous and modern.
Despite the medieval roots, the interiors you see here today start in the renaissance and go up through the 19th century, providing a fascinating study in the evolution of royal style. Be warned that the Residenz is the endurance test of palace visiting. No matter how keen you are on lavish art and architecture, there will come a point where you wonder if you can take any more. Will it ever end? But I, certainly, kept pushing on, because there was some new, extraordinary element of lavish magnificence beyond every corner. Leave at least half a day, and don't dream of taking it all in. Wander, let the glory wash over you, spend time (and use the audio guide) on the things that appeal most to you. That will be different for every visitor.
Early on, I was wowed by the grotto, where gods and sea creatures made of aquatic shells cavort across a wall-covering span of fountains. The post-war people of Munich contributed tens of thousands of fresh water mussel shells from their own kitchens to allow the artisans to re-create this wonder after WW2. It's a nice reminder, from the start, that most of what you see are magnificent copies and re-creations of what was destroyed. Soon after you come to The Antiquarium, a massive cross-vaulted hall decorated with inlaid marble, classical statuary and Renaissance "grotesquerie" frescoes. This is the interior shot that shows up most often in guidebooks, for good reason. I think it goes head-to-head with Siena's Piccolomini Library (described here) in a battle to be the greatest Renaissance room in Europe.
Inlaid marble is a consistent feature in the Residenz, and my visit forever killed my assumption that
pietra dura is quintessentially Italian. The emperor's staircase, the imperial hall and the stone rooms all offer walls that are ablaze with the myriad colours of their jigsaw-set marbles and precious stones. The stone rooms, added in the early 1600s, also feature a set of luscious tapestries with such fine detail you'll be hard-pressed to believe the image is woven rather than painted. (Warning: don't take the short tour or you'll miss these gems.) The most extraordinary pietra dura, however, comes in the smallest of three royal chapels, where detailed bible scenes play out in marble while a dome of gold gilt and bright blue evokes heaven above you.
The plasterers have a chance to trump the stone masons in the baroque and rococo rooms, dripping with gold gilt stucco work. The green gallery, with its emerald damask wall covering, fabulous art collection, mirrors and windows beneath the gold and white ceiling gee-gawgery is a warmer, friendlier riff on the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. The designer of these rooms, Francois de Cuvillies, is also responsible for the red, gold and white jewel box of a theatre. But it's the series of rooms from the Napoleonic era, with their French Empire furniture and restrained (in comparison) decoration that are the ones I'd move in to.
And yet The Residenz is just the tip of Munich's sight-seeing iceberg.
Every guidebook has a similar list of musts. Most are in such close proximity you'll never need to step on public transport. (Although, when you do, it's efficient and cheap.) I'd round out my top three with the Asamkirche and Nymphenburg Palace, both of which I'll cover later in my entry on the rococo. The art museums are justly famous, the English Garden is one of the world's great urban parks and all the churches deserve a peek inside.
We only had a few disappointments. The much-promoted Deutsches Museum is, to anyone familiar with Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry (described here), a bitter disappointment: a lonely, echoing cavern of a place filled with dusty displays that look like they haven't changed since the 1950s. Only its copy of the Altimira Caves with their pre-historic paintings struck me as really new and different but, ironically, the lighting in the exhibit prevented any close examination. We wish we would have gone to the Bavarian National Museum instead, which I think I would have enjoyed much more. Guides will rave about the Viktualienmarkt, but Europe offers many more interesting food markets, most notably Barcelona's Bouqueria (described here). And the famous Dallmayr's Delicatessen isn't quite so special once you're coming from London, where Fortnums, Selfridges and
Harrods all battle it out in the luxury food hall stakes.
But these were minor frustrations within a magnificent week. A week which didn't actually feature
that much sightseeing. Because the two best ways to enjoy Munich are to stroll and to drink.
The guiding hands of generations of Wittlesbachs, most notably of Ludwig I (reigned 1825-1848), have created an elegant city full of stage-set beautiful spaces. It has the sophistication of Vienna and the architectural continuity of Paris, but with a fraction of the crowds once you leave the main flight streets around the Marianplatz. It deserves long, leisurely afternoon strolls, stopping to admire architecture, monuments, flowers and trees.
You'll be helped in your leisurely pursuit by the wealth of beer halls and beer gardens. You could, in fact, structure a whole holiday around visiting these alone. And they certainly featured prominently across our week. They'll get a whole entry to themselves.
But first, it's time to move on to look at our other urban hub for this trip: Salzburg.
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