Location: Munich, Bavaria Map
Constructed: 1664 by Ferdinand Maria, Elector of Bavaria
Open: 10am- 4pm daily
Tel. +49 89 17908
Nymphenburg Palace (Schloss Nymphenburg) is located in Munich, capital of Bavaria region in Germany. Nymphenburg Palace was constructed in 1664 by Ferdinand Maria, Elector of Bavaria, as a private residence for himself and his wife Henriette Adelaide of Savoy. The chief architect of the mansion and surrounding lands was Italian architect Agostino Barelli who also designed Theatine Church in Munich. The royal palace of Nymphenburg Palace and garden was increased in size and complexity under supervision of subsequent generations. Nymphenburg Palace reached its current size under Max Emanuel (1679- 1726).
In 1663, Henriette Adelheid of Savoy became the owner of Hofmark Menzing, where Blutenburg Castle was already located, through a gift from her husband, the Bavarian Elector Ferdinand Maria (r. 1651–1679). The occasion was the birth of Prince Elector Max Emanuel, the long-awaited heir to the throne. The history of Nymphenburg Palace began in the same year with the purchase of the Schwaige Kemnat, a little further east and closer to Munich, for 10,000 florins by the Elector. The activities of the court shifted there when in 1664 a country castle was commissioned by Ferdinand Maria as a gift to his wife, which Adelheid of Savoy called "Nymphenburg". Contrary to a widespread misconception, the Italian name "Borgo delle Ninfe" was first created in the 19th century. The complex was designed as a pleasure palace in the style of Italian country villas; The baroque palace complex, which could serve as a summer residence and alternative to the seat of government, the Munich Residence, was only expanded a generation later under Max Emanuel. At times, the court's entertainment shifted to Schleissheim Palace, in whose park Lustheim Palace had now also been built.
It was not until 1701, at the request of
Max II Emanuel (reigned 1679–1726), that the cornerstone of the
expansion was laid, and the project remained in the shell as early
as 1704 after the War of the Spanish Succession until 1714 led to
the exile of the Elector and the occupation of Bavaria by the
Austrians . After the Elector's return, work was resumed on a larger
scale from 1716, and the first park castles were built.
The
convent dedicated to the Holy Trinity and St. Clement in the north
wing was founded in 1730. The monastery served as an Augustinian
choir monastery.
In the Nymphenburg Treaty of 1741 France,
Spain, Bavaria and Saxony allied themselves with Prussia against
Austria. Elector Karl Albrecht (reigned 1726–1745) preferred
Nymphenburg over the other pleasure palaces and lived mostly in
Nymphenburg after his return to Munich during his time as emperor
from October 1744. Until 1745 the deer hunting park was attached to
the castle.
In 1747, Karl Albrecht's son, Elector Max III.
Joseph (r. 1745–1777) founded the Nymphenburg Porcelain Manufactory.
As the most important summer residence, Nymphenburg was the scene of
numerous festivities at the court, in 1763 the Mozarts took part in
a large gala at Nymphenburg Palace and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
played in front of the elector. In 1792, Elector Karl Theodor (r.
1777–1799) had the Nymphenburg Park opened to the people.
In
1805, the Austrian Lieutenant Field Marshal Karl Philipp zu
Schwarzenberg invaded Nymphenburg Palace with 200 hussars and, with
ultimate threats, demanded that the Bavarian and Austrian troops be
joined, but thereby brought about a Bavarian alliance with France.
At the beginning of 1817 the last women choirs from the Augustinian
Choir Monastery were transferred to the Servitinnen. In 1835,
however, the English ladies received the building.
King
Maximilian I (r. 1799–1825) died in the castle in 1825, his
great-grandson King Ludwig II (r. 1864–1886) was born here in 1845.
In 1863 the only meeting between Ludwig and Otto von Bismarck took
place in Nymphenburg, with whom he remained in a lifelong
friendship. From 1873 to 1875, Prince Otto was kept in isolation in
the southern pavilion.
From 1890 to 1916, the Volksgarten
Nymphenburg was located 200 meters east of the palace on Romanplatz,
which was the largest amusement park in Germany at the time.
Due to the revolution in 1918, Nymphenburg came under crown estate administration, then state property (Bavarian administration of state palaces, gardens and lakes). The Wittelsbachers retained a limited right of residence, which is used by the respective head of the House of Wittelsbach (currently Duke Franz von Bayern). Prince Ludwig Ferdinand lived with his family continuously in the castle until his death in 1949.
With the end of the Weimar Republic, the National
Socialists seized the palace complex. In 1933 the local group
leadership of the NSDAP received the former "kitchen building" of
the third southern pavilion with 550 square meters of floor space as
a branch. Directly above, the resistance fighter Heinrich Weiß lived
unrecognized on the first floor. The former Marstall was used as a
parade hall for SA, Jungvolk and Hitler Youth. The palace and park
served as the backdrop for celebrations by National Socialist
rulers, such as B. for press receptions and summer parties that
Rudolf Hess gave to his 800 employees. From 1936 to 1939, the Night
of the Amazons was staged in the park as the evening highlight of
the Riem International Racing Week around the Brown Ribbon of
Germany in front of up to 20,000 spectators. The bizarre open-air
revue with its bare-breasted actresses holds a special position
among the major events of the “Third Reich”.
On October 22nd,
1934 Christian Weber founded the association "German Hunting Museum
eV - Research and Training Center for Hunting Lore" in order to
realize his plan to found a German Hunting Museum. With Hitler's
backing in 1935, the choice of location finally fell on large parts
of the north wing of Nymphenburg. To implement this, the English
girls were robbed of their school and boarding rooms. A gem of
baroque furnishings, the two-storey monastery church built between
1734 and 1739 with stucco work by Johann Baptist Zimmermann,
frescoes by Joseph Adam Mölck, sculptures by Johann Baptist Straub
and an altarpiece by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo was profaned at the
end of 1937 to make way for a reading room. The crypts below have
been converted into a beer cellar. In addition to extensive
renovations inside the historic building, new buildings for the
German Hunting Museum were also built under the direction of the
architect Oswald Bieber. However, in accordance with the Bavarian
Palace Administration, they were based on the roof and window
shapes, axes and floor structures of the historical model. On
October 16, 1938, the opening of the German Hunting Museum took
place with a pageant going out from there under the motto "1000
years of hunting and 1000 years of costume". Another brutal
intervention in the palace ensemble began for a second construction
phase of the German Hunting Museum. In the summer of 1939, the
Kapuzinerbau built in 1718 in the extreme north wing was demolished
without a formal permit.
During the
Second World War, the main palace and the Amalienburg were given a
camouflage to protect them from air attacks, the large areas of the
path were darkened and parts of the central canal were covered. The
water basins on the city side of the castle were also filled up
later. Two underground bunkers were built in the lawns of the inner
parterre, another was built east of the Iron House and has been
preserved to this day.
The palace complex was largely spared
during the Second World War. The monastery church, which was
profaned in 1937 and converted into the reading room of the German
Hunting Museum, was destroyed by bombs in 1944. Further damage was
caused to the forecourt of the castle. In the park, the Badenburg
and the Great Cascade were destroyed or severely damaged, damage
also occurred to the group of figures of Pan and the trees in the
park. Occupation soldiers blew up an old building, the so-called
penitentiary south of the Great Cascade, which had been used as an
arsenal.
After the war, the damage was gradually repaired. At the end of the war in May 1945 there was a large tented hospital in the green area in front of the city side of the castle. In 1952 the opening of today's Marstallmuseum took place. The castle was often used as a film set, including for the international productions Last year in Marienbad (1961) and Ludwig II (1973). In 1972 the Olympic dressage competitions were held against the backdrop of the Nymphenburg Palace. The Museum Mensch und Natur in the north wing was inaugurated in 1990, for which the Free State of Bavaria decided to expand in 2014 with a controversial new building.
Erection of the central building
Originally,
the central wing was built in the style of an Italian country house
as a five-storey cubic block with later double-flight staircases on
both sides from 1664 and was essentially completed in 1675. Kelheim
limestone was used as building material. The model was the
Piedmontese hunting lodge Venaria Reale, whose architect Amedeo
Castellamonte (1613–1683) also provided the first designs for
Nymphenburg.
Agostino Barelli, the architect of the Munich
Theatinerkirche, was employed as the first architect of Nymphenburg,
and the court builder Marx (Markus) Schinnagl as site manager.
Schinnagl, as the acting court architect, is otherwise completely
eliminated for the Electress's new buildings, she finds local
specialists insufficiently trained for her building projects. The
Italian baroque had already established itself at the Bavarian
court.
Work began with the construction of a cube-shaped
castle building and the creation of a garden west of the castle. It
was a small, Italian-designed garden ground floor. Between 1668,
when Barelli's departure from Munich, and in 1673, when court
builder Enrico Zuccalli took over all construction sites, Lorenzo
Perti was the head of work in Nymphenburg. In 1672 the topping-out
ceremony for the five-storey central building of the facility took
place. It is the main cubic building that still exists today, but at
that time each facade was emphasized by a dominant dwarf house.
After the Electress's death in 1676, the central building was
significantly changed under the direction of Zuccalli in 1678, its
mid-sized buildings were now demolished and the first staircase
facing the city was built. When Elector Ferdinand Maria died in
1679, construction work was suspended for more than twenty years.
Only then was the castle gradually expanded and redesigned over
time.
First, Elector Max II. Emanuel had Enrico Zuccalli and Giovanni
Antonio Viscardi build the two two-story arcade galleries next to
the main castle and the adjoining, almost square two northern and
two southern pavilions, each with three floors. This created a
courtyard of honor as the two outer pavilions were moved to the
east. Viscardi rebuilt the existing central building again,
providing the central hall on both sides with large arched windows
in groups of three. He also built the second large outside staircase
to the garden as a counterpart to the existing Zuccallis staircase
on the east side and created the entrance hall on the ground floor.
After only three years of construction, construction work was
suspended again due to the elector's exile during the War of the
Spanish Succession. Viscardi then built the palace chapel in the
second northern pavilion in 1713.
In 1716 the new court
architect Joseph Effner changed the façade of the main building
based on the French model. In the middle of the individual floors,
the three large, arched windows were framed by fluted pilasters that
extend to the roof. Under the management of Effner until 1719,
apartments were built in Nymphenburg in the style of the French
Régence. From 1716, the two cuboid-shaped connecting wings to the
two outer four-winged buildings for the orangery in the north and
the stables in the south, which adjoin the northern and southern
pavilions, were built. These buildings were again moved to the east
and are two-story. The Marstall was largely completed by 1719, while
the orangery wing was not completed until 1755–58 by Johann Baptist
Gunetzrhainer. With these two blocks, the eastern front of
Nymphenburg extends to 538 meters. To the north and south of the two
courtyard blocks, however, there are two further converted
courtyards, which, however, no longer owe their shape to Effner and
were only created later.
Historically, Nymphenburg Palace was
connected to Fürstenried Palace via Fürstenrieder Strasse as an
avenue. A water connection to the Schleißheim palace complex was
planned via the Nymphenburg-Biederstein Canal. The avenue connection
to the originally not yet merged royal seat of Munich still exists
today via the Nördliche or Südliche Auffahrtsallee. Originally there
was a line of sight, the view, to the northwestern Blutenburg
Castle.
The roundabout building in front of the main wing, which originated from the two outer buildings and was completed after 1730 under Max Emanuel's son Elector Karl Albrecht, was considered an architectural sensation in its time. It was to become the starting point for a “Carlstadt” that was never realized. Here are ten palaces symmetrically divided into two groups of five, which were built between 1728 and 1758 for senior court officials. The canal east of the castle, which is accompanied by the two access avenues and was part of the project, was built in the years 1728–30. In 1739 the monastery church of the Holy Trinity on the outer north wing of the castle with three altars was completed.
Karl Albrecht's son, Elector Max III. Joseph
commissioned François de Cuvilliés with the “Stone Hall” in the main
building, which was completed in 1756. In 1763, before the onset of
early classicism, the last changes in the Rococo style followed,
Franz Xaver Feichtmayr and François de Cuvilliés were commissioned
to redesign the two cabinets on the main floor of the central
building.
In 1795, Elector Karl Theodor had the galleries on
the park side widened, creating more, now classicistically decorated
rooms on both sides of the central pavilion.
Under King
Maximilian I Joseph, 1806–1810, the baroque furnishings in the first
southern pavilion were torn down with the exception of a few remains
in order to refurbish the rooms in the Napoleonic style of the
Empire. Shortly after taking office, his two successors also
initiated structural changes: On behalf of King Ludwig I, Leo von
Klenze removed the gable with the electoral coat of arms in 1826 and
instead created the attic on the main building. In 1848, Klenze was
commissioned by King Maximilian II Joseph to expand the now
inaccessible second floor of the central building with new living
spaces. The west wing of the south wing was not built until
1986–1989 in place of a shed, which meant that the exterior was only
completed according to the original plans.
Some
rooms have retained their original Baroque decoration, others were
later redesigned in the Rococo and Classicist styles.
Central
pavilion and galleries
In the central pavilion, François de
Cuvilliés designed the three-storey stone hall as a ballroom from
1755. The frescoes were created under the direction of Johann
Baptist Zimmermann, the central ceiling fresco depicts Helios in a
sun chariot, accompanied by other gods. The shape of the room,
however, dates back to the first building period by Barelli and
Zuccalli, including the wall and window structure Viscardi from
1702–1704 was retained at that time.
To the north of the
stone hall there is a wood-paneled anteroom, the audience room
decorated with Brussels tapestries and the former bedroom with the
so-called small beauty gallery with ladies-in-waiting from
Versailles, rooms that were redesigned under Max Emanuel in the
Regency style, but have retained their original baroque field
ceilings. Here are portraits of the elector and his wife Therese
Kunigunde. The Max III wood turning cabinet designed by Cuvillies
adjoins the bedroom on the park side. Josephs, while to the north of
it are three rooms that were created by the widening of the gallery
wings under Karl Theodor. In the first room behind the northern
gallery there are now further portraits of ladies-in-waiting from
Max Emanuel's Great Beauty Gallery, the second is decorated with a
knotted carpet with the alliance coat of arms of Bavaria and the
Electoral Palatinate (so-called coat of arms room) while portraits
of Karl Theodor and his wife hang in the third room .
To the
south of the Stone Hall, mirroring the northern rooms of the main
building, are the anteroom with the portrait of Karl Albrecht, the
audience room with the double portrait of the castle founders
Ferdinand Maria and Henriette Adelaide and the former bedroom with
the portraits of Max Emanuel and Therese Kunigunde of Poland. The
original baroque ceilings by Antonio Domenico Triva have also been
preserved here. The walls of the so-called lacquer cabinet, which
adjoins the bedroom, are almost completely covered with Chinese
coromandel lacquer panels that show scenes from a Chinese novel. The
ceiling was stuccoed by Franz Xaver Feuchtmayr. The bathroom of King
Maximilian II is behind the lacquer cabinet.
In the two
galleries to the north and south of the central pavilion there are
vedute of Bavarian castles. Behind the southern gallery is the
writing cabinet and anteroom of Elector Karl Theodor, which were
created with the widening of the gallery wing. The design came from
the court architect Maximilian von Verschaffelt.
The inner
southern pavilion housed the Electress's apartments when it was
built. Today the most famous attraction is the beauty gallery of
King Ludwig I of Bavaria. On behalf of the king, the court painter
Joseph Karl Stieler portrayed 36 “beautiful” women from all walks of
life in Munich; The most famous of these are the shoemaker's
daughter Helene Sedlmayr and Ludwig's long-time lover, the dancer
Lola Montez. Next to it is the study of Queen Caroline, his
furniture set, created around 1810, has a veneer made of alder wood.
Close by on the park side are the Queen's audience room in Empire
style and the bedroom in which King Ludwig II of Bavaria was born on
August 25, 1845. The mahogany furniture was created around 1815. In
a 5-room apartment above the room where Ludwig II was born, a
Wittelsbacher, currently Franz von Bayern, still lives due to the
family's right of residence.
The outer south pavilion is
generally inaccessible. It served as a kitchen in Max Emanuel's time
and, like the inner pavilion, was rebuilt in the classical period.
Farther south, the third pavilion is the kitchen building, which
was built as the "Comedihaus" and served as a kitchen house from
1750. The southern waterway from 1747 connects this building with
the stables in the south wing.
The Marstallmuseum is located
in the former royal stables in the south wing, with one of the most
important collections of coaches in Europe. Above it is the
Nymphenburg Porcelain Collection. The Porzellanmanufaktur
Nymphenburg is located in one of the houses in the northern
roundabout and can only be visited with prior written notice.
There is a restaurant with a beer garden in the south wing of
the palace, which adjoins the south wing.
The inner northern pavilion is generally
inaccessible, this is where Max Emanuel's parade apartment was
located. In this later so-called Crown Prince Building, there are
still high-quality representation rooms that are used by the
Wittelsbach Compensation Fund.
The outer northern pavilion
houses the castle church, whose ceiling paintings and frescoes by
Joseph Mölck (1759) deal with the life of St. Magdalena. In front of
the altarpiece of the baroque high altar is an older group of
figures depicting Christ and Mary Magdalene.
Further north,
the third pavilion is the Gardemeuble building from 1723, which was
used for passing and billiards when it was built. It is connected to
the north wing by the northern waterway from 1739.
The
central entrance portal with access to the orangery hall is located
under the clock tower of the north wing (orangery wing). The
Hubertus and Johannisal are on the upper floor. The three halls go
back to renovations by Johann Baptist Gunetzrhainer and are now used
as event rooms. The Museum of Man and Nature has been housed in the
western part of the orangery wing facing the park since 1990.
In the adjoining north wing of the castle is now the Maria Ward
elementary school. Since 1718 there have been cloister wings for
Capuchins and from 1730 for the education of girls by Augustinian
choir women. After the secularization, the English Fräulein
continued this task at the instigation of Ludwig I with an extensive
boarding school. This livelihood was withdrawn from the nuns in
1937. At the instigation of Christian Weber, the German Hunting
Museum was built on this site. The precious monastery church from
the Baroque period was gutted and converted into a reading room.
After the final destruction by a bomb hit in World War II, the Maria
Ward elementary school was housed here. Maria Ward came to Munich in
1627 after fleeing Rome, was sponsored by Elector Maximilian I and
founded an educational institution for girls.
The
palace complex houses several museums:
Marstallmuseum (south
wing)
Porcelain Museum Munich - also called "Bäuml Collection"
(south wing)
Museum of Man and Nature (north wing)
Erwin von
Kreibig Museum (southern roundabout)
With the castle a small garden in the Italian
style was created. In the years from 1701 to 1704, changes and
extensions to the garden in the French Baroque style were created.
The creation of an extensive landscape park based on the English
model began in 1804 with the southern part of the park, which was
completed in 1807, and was completed with the northern part in
1810-1823.
The central canal with the Great Cascade divides
the landscape park of the Nymphenburg Park into a northern and a
southern area. The water is supplied from the west of the Würm via
the Pasing-Nymphenburg Canal, which is part of the northern Munich
canal system. The water is diverted to the east and northeast via
two canals and via the Hartmannshofer Bach to the north.
In
the southern part there is the larger Badenburg Lake with the Temple
of Apollo and the Badenburg. The green fountain house with the water
mill for the pressure pumps of the garden fountain in the village is
on the southern canal, which maintains the level of the Würm Canal.
The Amalienburg determines the southeastern part of the park.
In the northern part there is the smaller Pagodenburger See with
the Pagodenburg. The botanical garden in the northeast is not part
of the Nymphenburg Park; it is partially separated from the park by
a wall and a road. The Magdalenenklause is located in the northeast
part of the park.
In the north there is the Kapuzinerhölzl
and Hartmannshofer Wald forest. The green area is part of the Natura
2000 FFH area "Nymphenburger Park with Allee and Kapuzinerhölzl".
The palace and park represent an important economic factor for
Munich, the main palace alone is visited by more than 300,000 guests
every year. In 2019 there were 323,575 and thus a good 11,500 fewer
visitors than in 2018. Nymphenburg is thus well in front of
Schleißheim Palace, but now behind the Residenz Museum in the Munich
Residenz. No castle in Bavaria can ignore Neuschwanstein, with
around 1.44 million visitors.
The concert series “Nymphenburg
Palace Concerts” has been held in the Hubertussaal since 2004 and
has since been attended by over 35,000 listeners. The Nymphenburg
Talks have been taking place in the vicinity of the palace since
2007.
The castle itself is also the seat of the Bavarian
Administration of State Palaces, Gardens and Lakes.
Nymphenburg Palace and Palace Park are entered as an
ensemble in the Bavarian list of monuments. From 1984 to 1996, the
Nymphenburg Palace Park was on the German tentative list, a suggested
list of potential UNESCO World Heritage Sites. In 2021, there are no
monuments in Munich on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
In
connection with plans for the new building of the Museum Biotopia, the
north wing of the palace building (previously the institute building of
the LMU, Maria-Ward-Straße 1a) was removed from the list of monuments in
December 2016. The plans envisage demolishing the post-war building,
designed in the spirit of Joseph Effner by a student of Hans Döllgast in
a baroque style, and replacing it with a futuristic new building, which
has met with criticism from the public. Munich's ex-curator Gert
Goergens explained that instead of a "break with the palace complex" a
"further construction in the monument context" was necessary. The art
historian Hans Ottomeyer warned that the project would prevent the
future inclusion of the palace ensemble in the UNESCO World Heritage. A
citizens' initiative founded in January 2017 is committed to preserving
the post-war building, which was previously a listed building.
Because of the plans for the new building, Nymphenburg Palace was put on
the endangered list of the monument network in Bavaria in mid-2017 and
on the red list of the Association of German Art Historians in early
2021. The association justified the step by saying that the Nymphenburg
palace complex was "the only ensemble from the 18th century in Munich
that is still preserved in all its facets" and its building program was
"unique in its diverse formal unity and its opening of courtly
representation to practical life". The project is looking for "a break
with uniformity in order to show off its identity in a conspicuous
manner". This contrast harms the view of the castle and contradicts the
concept of the facility. "The artistic and conceptual unity of
Nymphenburg Palace must be preserved," the association demands in a
statement.
In response to this, citizens, experts and
associations founded the cross-party "Action Group for Nymphenburg
Palace" in April 2021, which is committed to the preservation of the
palace wing and the relocation of Biotopia. In an open letter, the
initiative warns against a decision that violates "the protection of our
heritage and its preservation for future generations". With the
demolition of the castle wing for the construction of Biotopia, a
"blatant intervention in one of the most outstanding monuments in
Bavaria" is imminent. From the point of view of the initiative, the
destruction of the ensemble, the traffic load, the high construction
costs, the long construction period and the loss of the Man and Nature
Museum speak against Biotopia in the palace. A corresponding online
petition is supported by numerous citizens, experts and associations
such as the Munich Forum, Bavarian Monument Network and Cityscape
Germany.
The architectural model was Venaria Reale Palace near
Turin.
With a north-south axis of 632 meters, Nymphenburg Palace is
wider than Versailles Palace.
The castle park is around 180 hectares
in size, the entire complex is around 229 hectares in size.
As a
calendar building, Nymphenburg Palace is aligned to the spring equinox.
The Amalienburg by François de Cuvilliés the Younger Ä. and Johann
Baptist Zimmermann in the castle park is one of the oldest and most
important rococo buildings in Europe.
The pump system, which was
installed by Joseph Baader in 1803 in the Grüner Brunnhaus for the
fountain operation, is a masterpiece of engineering and the oldest
operating machine in Europe. Another pump system was installed in the
Johannisbrunnhaus in 1808.
The palace contains, among other things,
the gallery of beauties of Ludwig I (formerly in the ballroom building
of the Residenz) and the room where Ludwig II was born.
The head of
the House of Wittelsbach, currently Duke Franz of Bavaria, traditionally
resides in part of Nymphenburg Palace.
The palace is also the seat of
the Bavarian Palace Administration, the administration of the Duke of
Bavaria, the Marstall Museum, the Porcelain Museum, the Museum of Man
and Nature, the Maria Ward Elementary School, the Nymphenburg Porcelain
Manufactory (Northern Palace Rondell) and the Erwin von Kreibig Museum
(Southern Palace Rondell) .
With 323,575 visitors in 2019,
Nymphenburg Palace is one of the most visited palaces in Bavaria after
Neuschwanstein Castle (1.44 million visitors) and the Munich Residence
(521,417 visitors). In the Corona year 2020, only 73,406 people visited
Nymphenburg Palace.
The Nymphenburg Palace Concerts have been held in
the Hubertus Hall since 2004.
The Nymphenburg Talks have been held in
the palace surroundings since 2007.