Several beautiful, historic churches are located in or near the Marienplatz. Together, they provided a rewarding destination for a morning's walk with my camera.
Known as "Old Pete," the Church of Saint Peter is the oldest parish church in Munich. A church on this site, the highest in the Old Town area, predates the founding of the city.
Over the centuries, it has been rebuilt and restored several times, resulting in an interior which now blends Gothic, Baroque and Rococo styles. The main altar is pictured, right. Below are closer views of the altar and the vault above it.
Right: An altar in one of the side naves
Left: The ceiling of the central nave and organ
Officially the Cathedral of Our Dear Lady, Frauenkirche is the Cathedral of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, and a beloved symbol of the city.
Looking down the central nave, the interior columns hide all stained glass except the window behind the main altar. Three side windows are shown below.
These original carved figures were added over the choir stalls in around 1500.
Below, left:
The tomb of Emperor Ludwig IV
of Bavaria, completed in 1622
Below, right:
The main organ, built in 1994
You could almost miss St. Michael's Church as it sits among the storefronts in a pedestrian shopping zone. Built for the Jesuits in 1597, it is the largest late Renaissance church north of the Alps. Its barrel vault is the second largest in the world, after St. Peter's in Rome.
I cannot explain why I do not have a picture of the entire main altar. Instead, I took only closer views of the lower and upper sections of the altar, below. Below those are pictures of side altars and a monument to Eugène de Beauharnais, the stepson and adopted child of Napolean I, and of the church's organ.
Later that evening on a walk before dinner, I asked about what appeared to be a narrow church door set between two houses. Mike's friend Tommy said it was Asamkirche, officially the Church of St. John of Nepomuk, built in the 1700s by the Asam brothers - sculptor Egid and painter Cosmas - and intended as their private chapel (they lived in one of the adjoining houses). Like all the churches on this page, it is today a Roman Catholic church. We stepped inside.
I did not have my
camera with me,
but happily I did have
my iPhone.
This chapel is
considered one of
the most important structures of the late Baroque period.
