Munich - Day 4 | Eat (almost) Anything at Least One

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Munich - Day 4

Posted by Haalo

Another action packed day - I'll be revisiting the Residenz but also exploring a few other areas of interest in the complex.

The morning finds me in another church - this time it's Theatinerkirche - St Cajetan's.

my ability to take a decent photo of it's Baroque facade is marred by the presence of a huge crane.

This church looks towards the Residenz - it was built for Elector Ferdinand Maria and his wife to celebrate the birth of the heir to the throne, Max Emanuel. The main structure was built between 1663-1688, the towers built from 1676-1690 and the facade from 1765-1768. At one time it was also the court church.

Inside you'll find ornate white stucco work by Italian masters of the time Moretti, Brenni and Pertri. The high altar, in the photo above, is undergoing restoration as you can probably tell by the presence of cardboard cut-outs where two large statues should be.

The statues that sit right at the top of the main altar are actually representations of members of the royal family!

The dome is supposed to be reminiscent of St Peter's Basilica in Rome - I'll be able to see for myself in about a month's time

until then I can just admire this one.

Next stop is a very short walk away - the Egyptian Museum. It is part of the Residenz complex and overlooks the Hofgarten.

It's quite a nice surprise to find that you can actually take photos in here - just remember no flash. It's not a huge museum - they do have some lovely artefacts

Next stop was Asamkirche (or Church of St Johann Nepomuk) a sumptuous Rococo styled church dating from the 18th Century and frescos by Cosmas Asam.

The entrance of this church is also quite notable - the main entrance built upon natural rock foundations. The statue above the doorway is of St Nepomuk, a 14th century Bohemian monk.

A short distance away was another church - Damenstiftskirche St Anna. This church was built in 1735 and after the war only the outer walls and facade remained. In the 1950's it was rebuilt and restored to it's original state. Of note inside are the stucco work of Egid Asam and the frescoes by his brother Cosmas.

The painting on the altar is by Joseph Ruffini of the Virgin and Child with St Anne

These life size figures of the Last Supper date from the 18th century and sit to the left of the altar.

I then returned for a second viewing of the Residenz but this time decided to view the treasury as well. It's good to note that you can see even more rooms in the afternoon - so it might be a good idea to do one tour in the morning and another in the afternoon.

You can take pictures in here but it's not really that well lit and with so much behind glass, the results aren't the best.

Works from the middle ages to the classicism period are shown and there are plenty of jewels and crowns to ogle.

As I was leaving the Residenz and on the way out, I noticed that another section was now open, so I wandered in for a look. These rooms are in the middle of being restored - if you look closely enough at some of the photos you can see restoration marks on the murals. After going through these few rooms I was even more gob-smacked.

This is the ceiling detail from the room called Hall of Vengeance and below are the wall murals

This is the Hall of Treason

and this is the Wedding Hall

and lastly the Hall of Heroes

Continuing the them of re-visiting, I returned to the Frauenkirche to have a look inside - I'm really glad I came back

I was taken by the height inside - elegant columns reaching skywards towards a cobweb designed ceiling. Tall and narrow stained glass ringed the church, offsetting the simplicity of it's white walls.

My last stop is the Bürgersaal. It dates from 1710 and is quite an unusual design - it's a two story church. At ground level you find this

it contains the tomb of Rupert Mayer, a Jesuit who died for his resistance of the Nazi's.

Climb the stairs and you find this

designed by Viscardi and originally a "citizen's hall" it was consecrated as a church in 1778. Although damaged in the war it was rebuilt in 1945-46.

My final stop for the day was, I bet you can guess, another church! This time the Dreifaltigkeitskirche (that's very easy for me to say). Behind this simple facade lies a lovely interior, designed by Asam