Ludwig I – his classicist buildings in Munich [EN]
King Ludwig I of Bavaria grew up in the spirit of classicism and neo-humanism at the transition to the 19th century and was an ardent admirer of ancient Greece. Under him, Munich became a city of art and architecture. He was already a builder as crown prince and remained so even after his abdication in 1848.
The architects around Karl von Fischer, who were favored by his father king Maximilian I, were soon sidelined; two other architects were to shape Munich’s cityscape in the future. He appointed Leo von Klenze as his private architect as early as 1815.
In 1822, Klenze was raised to the Bavarian nobility, appointed court architect in 1825, became a member of the “Académie des Beaux-Arts” in 1841, received the British “Royal Gold Medal” in 1852, and was awarded the Prussian order “Pour le Mérite” in 1861” for sciences and arts and in 1862 he was awarded honorary citizenship of the city of Munich.
Shortly after the enthronement of Ludwig I, Friedrich Wilhelm Gärtner also received his first commissions. He had been a professor of architecture at the Munich Art Academy since 1819. In addition to his teaching, he was director of the Nymphenburg porcelain and glass painting manufactory. The commission for a design for the Bavarian State Library in 1827 was crucial for his career as a building architect. From this time on, Gärtner had the king’s special trust and this ultimately brought him further planning and construction on Ludwigstrasse.
A typical design feature of Gärtner was the round arch style based on the Romanesque period. This style stood in contrast to the style of strict classicism, which emphasized the vertical and horizontal. It initiated already the transition to historicism.
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Gärtner found his final resting place in the new part of the Old Southern Cemetery in Munich, which he designed himself. The von Klenze family grave is also located here.
The Königsplatz gave Munich the nickname Isar-Athens.
The Königsplatz is part of the road link from the Residenz to Nymphenburg Summer Palace. A northern suburb was planned already under King Max I Joseph. His builder Karl von Fischer began expanding the road link to Nymphenburg into a boulevard over a length of 1,500 meters in the Maxvorstadt area. Today’s Briennerstrasse was created.
After Leo von Klenze received the commission to create the Königsplatz, he remained true to Karl von Fischer’s basic concept. Two slightly elevated temple-like buildings were built on the sides, the Glyptothek on the north side with Ionic columns and today’s State Collection of Antiquities in the south with Corinthian columns. The end of the square to the west is the Propylaea, a gate building with Doric columns. It is dedicated to the Greek freedom fighters.
After the uprising against the Ottomans, the son of King Ludwig I was proclaimed King Otto I of Greece at the London Conference in 1832. There was hope at the Munich court for a lasting Wittelsbach dynasty in Greece. The Königsplatz shows Ludwig I’s connection to the country.
The Glyptothek was the first building built by Leo von Klenze from 1816 to 1830. It houses a collection of ancient sculptures, including “the boy with the goose”, “the Eirene with the Ploutos boy”, two boy figures, the “Munich Kouros” and the “Kouros of Tenea”, the gable figures from the Aphaea Temple in Aegina and the “Barberinian Faun”. The design of the collection was entrusted to Ludwig’s confidante and art advisor Johann Martin von Wagner.
Georg Friedrich Ziebland built the Museum for Antique Cabaret, today’s State Collection of Antiquities, on the south side of Königsplatz from 1838 to 1848. It is a counterpart to the Glyptothek and shows unique works of art and everyday objects from antiquity made from a wide variety of materials such as ceramics, metal and stone.
Leo von Klenze built the Propylaea between 1848 and 1862 as the last building in the west of the square and thus as a new entrance gate to the city of Munich. In addition to the Propylon of the Athens Acropolis, the building is also influenced by Egyptian architecture. The gable figures by Ludwig von Schwanthaler show Greek freedom fighters.
The Alte Pinakothek – a world-renowned art museum.
King Ludwig I was committed to the ideal of popular education. He wanted to make available to the public the works of art from the gallery in the Hofgarten founded by Elector Karl Theodor and the pictures of the Wittelsbach family, which were distributed across various castles, supplemented by numerous masterpieces that he had bought through his art advisors. King Ludwig I commissioned his court architect Leo von Klenze to build a museum building north of Königsplatz.
This is how the Alte Pinakothek was built from 1826 to 1836 and shows paintings from the Middle Ages to the middle of the 18th century. It is one of the most important picture galleries in the world. The holdings are part of the Bavarian State Painting Collections. King Ludwig I himself particularly loved the old German paintings and masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance.
With the Pinakothek, the architect Leo von Klenze has created a groundbreaking museum building that impresses with its series of large halls illuminated by skylights. During a visit to Munich, Tsar Nicholas I liked the Alte Pinakothek so much that he commissioned Leo von Klenze to plan the New Hermitage in Saint Petersburg, which was built between 1839 and 1852.
A walk on Ludwigstrasse.
The 1,300 meter long Ludwigstrasse begins at Odeonsplatz and leads from the Residenz north to the Siegestor / Victory Gate. Leo von Klenze made the first plans in 1816. In 1827, Friedrich von Gärtner took over the task. Construction work began two years later.
The Feldherrnhalle / Commander Hall forms the boundary to the old town. It was built between 1841 and 1844 by Friedrich von Gärtner as a classicist loggia made of Kelheim limestone. The building was intended to be similar in basic shape and dimensions to the “Loggia dei Lanzi” in Florence.
However, Gärtner increased the outside staircase so that the Feldherrnhalle appears more monumental than its Italian model. In the building dedicated to the Bavarian army there are two bronze statues by Ludwig von Schwanthaler: the two main figures in Bavarian military history, Count Tilly and Prince Wrede.
On a walk from the Feldherrnhalle to the Siegestor along the boulevard, we first pass several state ministries. The Ministry of the Interior is located at Odeonsplatz No. 3, the Ministry of Finance is at Odeonsplatz No. 4 and the Ministry of Agriculture is at Ludwigstrasse No. 2.
In the house Ludwigstraße No. 16 is the Bavarian State Library, the central universal and state library of the Free State of Bavaria of international standing with a collection of more than 30 million media. The elongated brick building of the Court and State Library was built between 1832 and 1843 based on a design by Friedrich von Gärtner in the style of Florentine palace buildings of the early Italian Renaissance. It was his first work for King Ludwig I.
The Catholic parish and university church of St. Ludwig is the first large church to be built in the arched style. On August 25, 1829, on Ludwig`s patrocinium, the foundation stone for this church was laid. The church was also planned by master builder Friedrich von Gärtner. Between 1836 and 1840, the second largest altar fresco in the world was created, “The Last Judgment” by Peter von Cornelius, who also painted other parts inside the Ludwigskirche.
A dispute arose at the church between Ludwig I and the magistrate of the now heavily indebted city of Munich about the dimensions and the necessity of further buildings on Ludwigstrasse. Only when the king threatened to move the residence and the university to another city could construction work continue.
The university was founded in 1472 by Duke Ludwig IX in Ingolstadt and moved to Landshut by the Bavarian King Maximilian I Joseph in 1800. In 1802 it was named after these two rulers. In 1826, King Ludwig I brought the Ludwig Maximilian University to Munich, where it was initially housed in the Old Academy on Neuhauser Straße, before the new main building was completed in 1840 in the round arch style after five years of construction by Friedrich von Gärtner. It houses facilities such as the rectorate, the student office and a large number of lecture halls.
The Geschwister-Scholl-Platz is the forecourt of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität west of Ludwigstrasse. Here is the memorial for the “White Rose”, the resistance group against National Socialism dominated by Munich students with Christian and humanist values. Between late February and October 1943, the group was exposed, arrested, sentenced to death and finally executed. The inner circle included the two siblings Hans and Sophie Scholl, Alexander Schmorell, Christoph Probst, Willi Graf and the university professor Kurt Huber. The corresponding square east of Ludwigstrasse is called Professor-Huber-Platz. There are fountains on both squares. They were created between 1842 and 1844 based on plans by Friedrich von Gärtner. Since their models are in St. Peter’s Square in Rome, they are called “Roman fountains”. The water that bubbles out of the column is collected in a bowl and then falls into the lower stone basin in a transparent curtain.
The Siegestor was built as the northern end of Ludwigstrasse between 1843 and 1850. With it, Friedrich von Gärtner created a variant of the Arch of Constantine in Rome. The figure of „Bavaria“ cart out of town with the Quadriga made up of Bavarian lions and, according to the inscription, “to the Bavarian Army”. The reliefs show battle scenes, and the Bavarian districts are mentioned in the medallions. After the Second World War, the heavily damaged Victory Gate was redesigned as a peace memorial under the impression of destruction, displacement and war guilt.
Theresienhöhe and Theresienwiese.
Crown Prince Ludwig married Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen on October 12, 1810. At the end of the some days-long wedding celebrations, a horse race was held on October 17th on a meadow west of the city gates in front of 50,000 spectators. The meadow was henceforth called Theresienwiese and the horse race, together with an agricultural festival, was repeated as Oktoberfest in the next few years. From 1818 onwards, carousels and swings were also set up.
In 1824, Crown Prince Ludwig wrote a note that a Bavarian hall of fame should be enthroned at the edge on the slope above Theresienwiese. On the high bank of the Isar glacial valley, the court gardener Seitz first laid out the Bavaria Park between 1825 and 1831, which was planted with oaks, beeches and other deciduous and coniferous trees. This park was redesigned by Professor Gabriel von Seidl when an exhibition area was planned on Theresienhöhe at the beginning of the 20th century. Munich artists created stone figures such as the “Lying Spring Nymph”, the “Resting Faun”, a four-part group of riders and the bronze sculptures “The Deer” and “Wild Horses”.
Unfortunately, the park was only accessible from the east side due to the exhibition grounds surrounding it. That changed in 1998 after the trade fair moved to the old Riem Airport. Today, we residents of Westend have direct access to Bavaria Park via passages between the award-winning new buildings on Theresienhöhe by Otto Steidle.
The oval with the large, central lawn is surrounded by old trees from King Ludwig’s times, from which the Augustiner Brewery’s beer garden, which was newly opened in 2007, also benefits. The three listed exhibition halls opposite now house the “traffic exhibition” operated by the Deutsches Museum.
The newest building at Bavariapark is also architecturally interesting and is recommended for visitors to Munich because of its good location: the youth and family hotel Augustin.
King Ludwig I commissioned his court architect Leo von Klenze to build the Ruhmeshalle / Hall of Fame. The three-wing Doric colonnade was built together with the statue of Bavaria between 1843 and 1853 on Theresienhöhe. The display side faces the city and the Theresienwiese and on the other three sides the ensemble is surrounded by the Bavaria Park.
The hall made of Kelheim sandstone with its 48 columns stands on a base 4.30 meters high, is 68 meters wide, 32 meters deep and 16 meters high. Inside there are 92 busts of people who have made special contributions to Bavaria. The statue Bavaria holds an oak wreath in her hand to honor these personalities.
The figure of the Patrona Bavariae with the lion sitting at her feet symbolizes Bavaria. The bronze casting of the Bavaria is considered a technical masterpiece, as it is the first example of its kind from the 19th century and the first colossal statue since ancient times to be made entirely of bronze.
The Bavaria was created based on a model by the sculptor Ludwig Schwanthaler in the royal ore foundry, headed by Ferdinand von Miller. In 1850 the casting of the 18.50 meter high and 87 tonne bronze was completed.
It was placed on the almost 9 meter high base. In its cavity you can climb a steep spiral staircase to a viewing platform in the head, which was cast using Turkish cannons that sank with the Egyptian-Turkish fleet in the Battle of Navarino in 1827 during the Greek War of Liberation. In the head of the statue there are two benches that can accommodate six people. Several small lookouts give you a beautiful view on the Oktoberfest and the Paulskirche.
King Ludwig I succeeded in developing Munich, the capital of Bavaria, into an European art center that radiated as far as Paris, London, St. Petersburg and Athens. Through his monumental buildings and art collections, he won over wealthy citizens and tied them to himself and the political system. He employed numerous artists and designers and ensured employment on the numerous construction sites. We Munich residents, newcomers and tourists love to stroll along its boulevards, marvel at the works of Rubens, Dürer and Altdorfer in the Pinakothek and „make a pilgrimage“ to the Theresienwiese, be it for the Winter Tollwood or the Oktoberfest.
Service Munich:
Train Ticket SuperSaver ICE from Berlin or Frankfurt Airport to Munich – 2nd class costs from 17,50 €, 1st class from 23,90 €.
Augustin youth and family hotel – Double room from 79 € incl. breakfast.
Hotel Germania (Schwanthalerstraße) – Double room superior (DERTOUR Tour Operator) from 72 € incl. breakfast.
Glyptothek and State Collection of Antiquities entrance fee 6 € (sundays 2 €).
Alte Pinakothek entrance fee 9 € (sundays 1 €).
Bavaria entrance fee 5 €.
Public transport MVV – group ticket up to 5 persons 17,80 € – single person 9,20 € per day.
Museum Line Bus 100 runs Hauptbahnhof Nord – Königsplatz – Alte Pinakothek – Odeonsplatz v.v. / subway U5 runs Schwanthalerhöhe or Theresienwiese – Odeonsplatz v.v.
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Further articles of Munich in German:
- Nymphenburg – die Sommerresidenz der Wittelsbacher
- Prominentengräber auf Münchner Friedhöfen
- Der Westpark in München – Rosen, Bier und Pagoden
- Der Englische Garten in München
- Der Olympiapark in München wird 50
- Die Isar – ein Alpenfluss durchquert München
- Die Würm – viel mehr als nur eine Eiszeit
Further articles about Upper Bavaria in German:
- Grünwald – eine Radrunde auf dem Olympiakurs 1972
- Burghausen mit der längsten mittelalterlichen Festung
- Auf dem Weg – Altötting
- Schleißheim – drei Schlösser und ein schöner Barockpark
- Bezauberndes Landsberg am Lech
- Freising – der Domberg und Weihenstephan
- Eine Radtour über den Irschenberg ins Mangfalltal
- Von Bayrischzell mit dem Rad ins Inntal
- Der Königsee im Alpen-Nationalpark
- Um den Wendelstein zum Tatzelwurm und Sudelfeld
- Der Tegernsee – die Perle des Oberlands
- Von Mittenwald ins Loisachtal
- Am Starnberger See – eine große Schiffsrundfahrt
- Ammersee – mein Lieblings-Radweg am Westufer
- Die Amper – vom Ammersee zur Isar
- Die Flugwerft – ein Museum der Luftfahrtgeschichte
- Das Fünf-Seen-Land – die drei kleineren Seen
- Das Tölzer Land mit dem Isarwinkel
- Das Blaue Land rund um den Kochel- und Staffelsee
- Am Walchensee – Panoramaweg nach Sachenbach
- Am Schliersee – eine Radtour im Oberland
- Auf dem Tauern-Radweg nach Bad Reichenhall
- Der Chiemsee – rund ums bayerische Meer
- Im Inntal – mit dem Rad vom Ötztal nach Wasserburg
- Am Spitzingsee – Skispaß in den Bayerischen Alpen