Sights in Munich
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Deutsches Museum
You could spend days exploring the Deutsches Museum, said to be the world's largest science and technology collection. This vast museum occupies its own island southeast of Isartor (Isar Gate) and features just about anything ever invented. Interactive displays (including glass blowing and paper making), model coal and salt mines, and wonderful sections on musical instruments, caves, geodesy, micro-electronics and astronomy are just some of the delights on offer. Demonstrations take place throughout the day; a popular one is in the power hall where a staff member is raised in the insulated Faraday Cage and zapped with a 220,000V bolt of lightning. There is also a fascinat…
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Münchner Stadtmuseum
You could spend hours roaming through the collections of the rambling Münchner Stadtmuseum, making it a perfect rainy day destination.
Historical exhibits help you understand how the royal residence evolved into today's modern metropolis, but the main artistic draw is the ensemble of Erasmus Grasser's 10 spritelike Morris Dancers (1480), medieval travelling entertainers who performed at court and on market squares. The late Gothic figures originally adorned the ballroom of the Altes Rathaus.
Also of special note is the small but powerful section on Munich during the Third Reich that forms an enlightening complement to the nearby Jüdisches Museum (Jewish Museum). Set in a …
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Leopoldstrasse
Grab a table in a street-side café on Leopoldstrasse and watch the world on parade. What do you see? Bronzed lotharios in deep-buttoned white shirts. Faux blondes in tiny tees. Teens in tight premium jeans. Chic mamas walking designer dogs. Yup, no matter what you've heard or read, Schwabing's reputation as a boho stronghold of artists and students is a thing of the past.
Fact is, Schwabing is thoroughly gentrified, has some of the highest rents in town and is populated by lawyers, editors, professors and trust fund babies in beemers.
Some live in beautifully restored Jugendstil (Art Nouveau) buildings along such streets as Ainmillerstrasse and Gedonstrasse. Through it a…
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Frauenkirche
The landmark Frauenkirche is Munich's spiritual heart and the 'Mt Everest' among its churches. No other building in the central city may stand taller than its onion-domed twin towers which reach a lofty 99m. From April to October, you can enjoy panoramic city views from the south tower.
Bombed to bits in WWII, the reconstruction is a soaring passage of light but otherwise fairly spartan. Of note is the epic cenotaph (empty tomb) of Ludwig the Bavarian just past the entrance and the bronze plaques of Pope Benedict XVI and his predecessor John Paul II affixed to nearby pillars.
Churches come with legends, and the Frauenkirche has a particularly good one. As you enter the foy…
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Marienplatz
The heart and soul of the Altstadt, Marienplatz, is a popular gathering spot and packs a lot of personality into its relatively small frame. It's anchored by the Mariensäule (Mary's Column), built in 1638 to celebrate victory over Swedish forces during the Thirty Years' War; it's topped by a golden statue of the Virgin Mary balancing on a crescent moon.
At 11:00 and noon (also 17:00 March to October), the square jams up with tourists craning their necks to take in the animated Glockenspiel (carillon) in the Neues Rathaus (New Town Hall), a neo-Gothic fantasy festooned with gargoyles, statues and a dragon scaling the turrets; the tourist office is on the ground floor. For…
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Maximilianstrasse
It's pricey and pretentious, but no trip to Munich would be complete without a saunter down Maximilianstrasse, one of the city's grandest boulevards. Starting at Max-Joseph-Platz, it's a 1km-long ribbon of style where sample-size fembots browse for Escada and Prada, and suits sip champagne in pavement cafés, with nary a hair out of place. Several of Munich's finest theatrical venues, including the Nationaltheater, the Kammerspiele and the Kleine Komödie am Max II are also here.
Built between 1852 and 1875, Maximilianstrasse was essentially an ego trip of King Max II. He harnessed the skills of architect Friedrich von Bürklein to create a unique stylistic hotchpotch rang…
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Hofgarten
Office workers catching some rays during their lunch break, stylish moms pushing prams, seniors on bikes, a gaggle of chatty nuns - everybody comes to the Hofgarten. The formal court gardens with fountains, radiant flower beds, lime tree-lined gravel paths and benches galore sits just north of the Residenz. Paths converge at the Dianatempel, a striking octagonal pavilion honouring the Roman goddess of the hunt. In summer it's a favourite spot for classical music recitals.
Boules players gather by the arcades on the park's north side, where the Deutsches Theatermuseum (German Theatre Museum) trains the spotlight on theatre in German-speaking countries with sets, props, cos…
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Englischer Garten
The sprawling Englischer Garten is among Europe's biggest city parks - bigger than even London's Hyde Park and New York's Central Park and a favourite playground for locals and visitors alike. It stretches north from Prinzregentenstrasse for about 5km and was conceived in 1789 - coincidentally (or perhaps not) the year of the French Revolution - as a 'garden for the people' by Elector Karl Theodor.
The design job went to Benjamin Thompson, an American-born scientist working as an advisor to the Bavarian government and at one time as its war minister.
Paths piddle around in dark stands of mature oak and maple before emerging into sunlit meadows of lush grass. Locals are min…
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Schloss Nymphenburg Gardens
The sprawling park behind Schloss Nymphenburg is a favourite spot with Münchners and visitors for strolling, jogging or whiling away a lazy afternoon. It's laid out in grand English style and accented with water features, including a large lake, a cascade and a canal popular for feeding swans, and ice-skating and ice-curling when it freezes over in winter.
The park is at its most magical without the masses, ie early in the morning and an hour before closing. But even in the daytime, you can usually commune in solitude with waterlilies and singing frogs at the Kugelweiher pond in the far northern corner.
The park's chief folly - and quite frilly to boot - the Amalienburg i…
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Bavaria Filmstadt
Movie magic made in Munich is the draw of the Bavaria Filmstadt, a theme park built around Bavaria Film, one of Germany's oldest studios founded in 1919. The top-grossing German film of all-time,Das Boot, was among the classics shot here but today's German audience is more interested in sets of the family soap, Marienhof. Films and TV are still produced today, and who knows, you might see a star during the guided 90-minute tours. The 13:00 tour is in English.
The crash-and-burn Stunt Show (show only around €9.50) is a runaway hit as well while kids are particularly fond of the wacky 4D cinema (tickets around €5.50) with seats that lurch and other special effects from sill…
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BMW Welt
Next to the Olympic Park, where Lerchenauer Strasse meets Petuelring, a glass and steel double-cone 'tornado' spirals skyward. It's arrested only by a roof the size of an aircraft carrier yet imbued with the lightness of a cloud. The BMW Welt is an architectural showstopper, a cathedral to cars, a place of pilgrimage for those who worship at the altar of the auto.
The lucky ones get to drive away with their dream car, for BMW Welt is first and foremost a car pick-up centre. Everyone else can admire the latest models, straddle a powerful motorbike, browse the 'lifestyle shop' or take a guided 80-minute tour. On the Junior Campus, kids learn about mobility, fancy themselve…
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Olympic Park
Built for the 1972 Olympic Games, Munich's Olympic Park remains an important part of life in the city. The park's lofty centrepiece is the 290m-high Olympia Tower, and the architecturally gargantuan 75,000-sq-m transparent 'tented' roof covering the Olympic Stadium is also impressive.
In the 19th century the site was a practice field for royal riders; in 1909, the first Zeppelin airship landed here; and in 1929, it became the site of Munich's first civil airport.
Today the Olympic complex is open as a collection of public facilities, and the grounds play host to numerous celebrations, concerts, fireworks displays and professional sporting matches throughout the year.
If y…
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Feldherrnhalle
Corking up Odeonsplatz's south side is the Feldherrnhalle, built by Klenze's main rival Friedrich von Gärnter and modelled on the Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence. Sombre and chunky, it honours the valour of the Bavarian army and positively drips with testosterone; just check out the statues of General Johann Tilly, who kicked the Swedes out of Munich during the Thirty Years' War; and Karl Phillip von Wrede, who first fought with, then against Napoleon in the early 19th century.
It was at the Feldherrnhalle where, on 9 November 1923, police stopped the so-called Beer Hall Putsch, Hitler's attempt to bring down the Weimar Republic. A fierce skirmish left 20 people, including …
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Museum Villa Stuck
Franz von Stuck was a leading light in Munich's art scene around the turn of the 20th century and his residence is one of the finest Jugendstil homes you'll ever see. Stuck himself came up with the intricate design, which forges tapestries, patterned floors, coffered ceilings and other elements into a harmonious work of art. His furniture even earned a gold medal at the Paris World Fair in 1900.
Today, his pad is open as the Museum Villa Stuck and presents changing exhibits, usually starring Stuck's contemporaries but also later 20th-century avant-gardists such as Nam June Paik and Cindy Sherman. The most famous Stuck painting is Die Sünde (Sin; 1893), infused with an un…
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Alte Pinakothek
The Alte Pinakothek is a veritable treasure trove of works by Old European Masters and an unmissable part of any visit to the city. Housed in a neoclassical temple built by King Ludwig I, it is one of the most important collections in the world. Just north of the gallery, the Neue Pinakothek contains an extensive collection of 18th- to early-20th-century paintings and sculpture, from rococo to Jugendstil (art nouveau). A block east of the gallery is the Pinakothek der Moderne. Opened in 2002 after six years of construction, it is Germany's biggest collection of modern art. The spectacular interior is dominated by a huge eyelike dome, spreading natural light throughout the…
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Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität
Bavaria's oldest university, the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität started out as political football for its rulers. Founded in Ingolstadt in 1472, it moved to Landshut in 1800 before being lassoed to Munich in 1826 by newly crowned King Ludwig I. It has produced more than a dozen Nobel Prize winners, including Wilhelm Röntgen in 1901 and Theodor Hiersch in 2005.
The main building, by Gärtner of course, has cathedral-like dimensions and is accented with sculpture and other art work. A flight of stairs leads to a light court with a memorial to Die Weisse Rose, the Nazi resistance group founded by Hans and Sophie Scholl. To get the full story visit the exhibit called Denk S…
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Altes Rathaus
The eastern side of Marienplatz is dominated by the Altes Rathaus. Lightning got the better of the medieval original in 1460 and WWII bombs levelled its successor, so what you see is really the third incarnation of the building designed by Jörg von Halspach of Frauenkirche fame. On 9 November 1938 Joseph Goebbels gave a hate-filled speech here that launched the nationwide Kristallnacht pogroms.
Today it houses the adorable Spielzeugmuseum (Toy Museum) with its huge collection of rare and precious toys from throughout Europe and the US. Also, on the old town hall's south side you can pay your respects to Romeo's heart-throb Juliet, a beautiful bronze sculpture that was a …
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Schloss
The main palace building consists of a large villa and two wings of creaking parquet floors and sumptuous period rooms. Right at the beginning comes the highpoint of the entire Schloss, the Schönheitengalerie (Gallery of Beauties), housed in the former apartments of Queen Caroline. Some 38 portraits of beautiful women chosen by an admiring King Ludwig I peer prettily from the walls. The most famous is of Helene Sedlmayr, the daughter of a shoemaker, wearing a lavish frock the king gave her for the sitting. You'll also find Ludwig's beautiful but notorious lover, Lola Montez, as well as 19th-century gossip-column celebrity, Jane Lady Ellenborough, and English beauty Lady …
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Residenz
The Residenz is a suitably grand palace to reflect the splendour and power of the Wittelsbach clan, the Bavarian rulers who lived here from 1385 to 1918. The edifice dwarfs Max-Joseph-Platz along with the grandiose Nationaltheater, home to the Bavarian State Opera. Its museums are among the jewels in Munich's cultural crown.
A quadriga of giant bronze lions guards the entrance to the palace on Residenzstrasse, supported by pedestals festooned with a half-human, half-animal face. Note the creatures' remarkably shiny noses. If you wait a moment, you'll see the reason for the sheen: scores of people walk by and casually rub one or all four noses. It's supposed to bring you w…
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Allianz Arena
Soccer and architecture fans alike should take a side trip to the northern Munich suburb of Fröttmaning to see Munich's showpiece football stadium - already an historic site after hosting the opening game of the World Cup 2006. Nicknamed the 'life belt' and 'rubber boat' (Schlauchboot), the state-of-the-art, €340 million Allianz Arena (off Map p000) has walls made of inflatable cushions that can be individually lit to match the jerseys of the host team - be it local sides FC Bayern München and TSV 1860 München (who share the stadium) or the national team. Take a tour of the stadium but expect to queue in summer. To get there take the U6 to Fröttmaning.
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walk on the roof
Don't have time to make it to the Alps for climbing around lofty heights? No sweat. Just head to the Olympic Stadium for a walk on the roof . Yup, the roof; that famously contorted steel and plexiglass confection is ready for its close-up. Just like on the mountains, you'll be roped and hooked up to a steel cable as you clamber around under the eagle-eyed supervision of an experienced guide showering you with fascinating details about the stadium's architecture and construction. Unusual perspectives are guaranteed, but the vertigo-prone might want to take a pass on this one. Minimum age is 10 and expeditions last two hours. Wear rubber-soled shoes.
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Neues Rathaus
The coal-blackened façade of the neo-Gothic Neues Rathaus, New Town Hall, is festooned with gargoyles and statues, including a dragon scaling the turrets. Inside, six grand courtyards host festivals and concerts throughout the year. For a good view of the city, ascend the 85m tower.
The highlight of the building is the Glockenspiel (carillon). Note the three levels: two portraying the Schäfflertanz and another the Ritterturnier, a knights' tournament held in 1568 to celebrate a royal marriage. The night scene featuring the Münchener Kindl (a girl in a monk's robe) and Nachtwächter (night watchman) runs at 21:00.
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Justizpalast
Just west of Karlsplatz, the 1890s Justizpalast looms like a pompous presence with neobaroque and neo-Renaissance flourishes. 'Justice' was not exactly meted out here on 22 February 1943 when Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl and Christoph Probst were condemned to death by the notorious judge Roland Freisler. The verdict was read at 13:00. Four hours later they were dead. There's a permanent exhibit about the sham trial in the very courtroom in room 253.
A second courthouse, the Neuer Justizpalast (New Palace of Justice) was built just a few years later and is more of a neo-Gothic confection.
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Asamkirche
Near the Sendlinger Tor, a 14th-century gate, you'll come upon the pint-sized St Johann Nepomuk church, better known as the Asamkirche. Designed and built in the 18th century as a private chapel by the prolific Asam brothers, who lived next door, the over-the-top baroque interior with not an inch of unembellished wall or column, must have been an awe-inspiring sight for 18th-century Müncheners, as it is today. The narrowness of the nave packed with barley-sugar columns, hovering cherubs and faux marble heightens the riotous effect.
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Alter Botanischer Garten
Alter Botanischer Garten is a nice place to cool your heels after an Altstadt shopping spree. Created under King Maximilian in 1814, the tender specimens were moved after WWII to a clean-air spot behind Schloss Nymphenburg. All remaining 'foreign' plants were removed under the Nazis in 1935, who turned it into a pleasant, if rather generic, park.
The ferocious Neptunbrunnen (Neptune Fountain), on the south side, dates back to the same year. The neoclassical entrance gate is called the Kleine Propyläen and is a leftover from the original gardens.
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