Nymphenburg Palace: Wittelsbach Summer Residence in Munich
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Very High
- Country
- Germany
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Electorate of Bavaria, German, Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Palace
On this page28 sections
History
Nymphenburg Palace in Germany began in 1664 as an Italianate country villa commissioned by Elector Ferdinand Maria of Bavaria and his wife, Henriette Adelaide of Savoy, to celebrate the birth of their long-awaited heir, Maximilian II Emanuel. Developed into a monumental Baroque and Rococo complex, it became the principal summer residence of the Wittelsbach dynasty, Bavaria’s ruling house, from 1715 until the end of the monarchy in 1918.
From Villa to Electoral Residence
Agostino Barelli designed the original palace, with early contributions from Amedeo Castellamonte. The central pavilion was substantially complete by 1675, although construction was suspended after 1679 for more than two decades. Work resumed in 1701 under Elector Maximilian II Emanuel, but the War of the Spanish Succession, his exile, and the Austrian occupation of Bavaria interrupted the expansion. Building recommenced on a larger scale from 1716.
Maximilian II Emanuel transformed the small villa into a court complex with lateral pavilions, galleries, garden buildings, and the beginnings of its monumental Baroque form. Enrico Zuccalli, Giovanni Antonio Viscardi, and Joseph Effner successively reshaped the palace. Charles Albert and later rulers continued the expansion, and Nymphenburg eventually became an alternative to the Munich Residence. The name Nymphenburg was used from the palace’s early history; the Italian form “Borgo delle Ninfe” was created only in the nineteenth century.
Charles Albert preferred Nymphenburg to the other court pleasure palaces and lived there frequently. He also resided there during his time in Munich as Emperor Charles VII from October 1744. The Treaty of Nymphenburg, concluded in 1741, allied Bavaria with France, Spain, and Saxony, alongside Prussia, against Austria. A related treaty between Bavaria and Spain was signed at the palace on 28 May 1741.
Court, Convent, and Manufacture
The complex became a setting for court life and political activity. A convent dedicated to the Holy Trinity and Saint Clement was founded in the north wing in 1730 for Augustinian canonesses, and its church was completed with three altars in 1739. In 1747, Elector Maximilian III Joseph founded the Nymphenburg Porcelain Manufactory, which remains associated with the palace. Nymphenburg became the court’s most important summer residence and hosted numerous festivities. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart performed before the elector at a gala there in 1763.
The palace and grounds were connected with court hunting and leisure. A deer-hunting park adjoined the palace until 1745, and Elector Charles Theodore opened the Nymphenburg Park to the public in 1792. This change followed the park’s earlier use as a court landscape while preserving its role as part of the palace ensemble.
In 1805, the Austrian field marshal lieutenant Karl Philipp zu Schwarzenberg entered Nymphenburg with 200 hussars and demanded that Bavarian troops join Austria. The episode instead contributed to Bavaria’s alliance with France and its subsequent elevation to a kingdom in 1806. Bavarian secularization ended the Augustinian foundation’s occupation of the complex. The remaining canonesses were transferred to the Servites in 1817, and in 1835 King Ludwig I gave the buildings to the English Ladies for the education of girls.
Royal Associations and the End of the Monarchy
Nymphenburg remained closely associated with the Bavarian royal family. King Maximilian I Joseph died there in 1825, and his great-grandson King Ludwig II was born at the palace in 1845. The only meeting between Ludwig II and Otto von Bismarck took place there in 1863. From 1873 to 1875, Ludwig II’s brother Prince Otto was held in isolation in the southern pavilion.
After the revolution of 1918, Nymphenburg passed first to crown-estate administration and then into state ownership under the Bavarian Administration of State-Owned Palaces, Gardens and Lakes. The Wittelsbach family retained residential rights in part of the palace. Prince Ludwig Ferdinand lived there continuously with his family until his death in 1949, and Franz, Duke of Bavaria, head of the house, retains a residence.
Instrumentalization and War Damage
During the Nazi period, the former kitchen building of the third southern pavilion became a local headquarters of the Nazi Party in 1933. The former stables were used as a drill hall for the SA, the German Youngsters, and the Hitler Youth. Nazi officials also used the palace and park for receptions and festivals, including summer events associated with Rudolf Hess. From 1936 to 1939, the park hosted the “Night of the Amazons,” an evening revue connected with International Racing Week at Riem and attended by as many as 20,000 spectators.
Christian Weber founded the German Hunting Museum Association in 1934. With Adolf Hitler’s support, the museum occupied much of the north wing from 1935, displacing the English Ladies from their school and boarding facilities. The former convent church was deconsecrated in late 1937 and converted into a reading room, while its crypts became a beer cellar. The German Hunting Museum opened in 1938. In summer 1939, the Kapuzinerbau at the extreme north wing was demolished without formal authorization for a second construction phase.
During the Second World War, the main palace and Amalienburg were camouflaged. Large paths in the park were darkened, parts of the central canal were covered, and the water basins on the city side were later filled. Two underground bunkers were built in the Inner Parterre, and another was constructed east of the Iron House and survives. The complex was largely spared, but bombing in 1944 destroyed the former convent church after its conversion into the museum reading room. The forecourt was damaged, while Badenburg and the Great Cascade suffered severe damage or destruction. The Pan sculpture group and park trees were also damaged. US occupation forces demolished the former prison south of the Great Cascade after it had been used as a weapons store.
Restoration and Present Status
Postwar repairs progressively removed the damage. A large tent hospital occupied the city-side lawns between May and July 1945, and the Marstallmuseum opened in 1952. The Museum of Man and Nature opened in the north wing in 1990. Nymphenburg and its park are protected as a historic ensemble and archaeological monument, including buried early-modern remains, palace and garden grounds, the four park palaces, and the former medieval and early-modern Hofmark of Kemnathen with its former branch church of Saint Magdalena.
The park appeared on Germany’s UNESCO World Heritage tentative list from 1984 to 1996 but was not on Munich’s UNESCO World Heritage list in 2021. Plans announced from 2014 for a new Biotopia museum building led to concern about the north-wing ensemble. The relevant postwar institute building was removed from the monument list in December 2016, followed by criticism and a citizens’ initiative founded in 2017. Nymphenburg was placed on the Bavarian monument network’s danger list in 2017 and on the Association of German Art Historians’ Red List in early 2021.
In April 2021, citizens, experts, and associations founded the Action Group for Nymphenburg Palace and petitioned for the museum project to be relocated and the threatened building preserved. In 2023, the proposal was reconsidered under the name “Bavarian Museum of Natural History,” with the stated aim of developing the existing Museum of Man and Nature. In the same year, the Bavarian monument network warned that planned 155-metre skyscrapers in the palace’s visual setting could seriously impair the palace-and-park ensemble.
Remains
Nymphenburg developed from a small Italianate villa into a large palace and garden composition in the Baroque and Rococo traditions. It includes the palace, the eastern Schlossrondell, the western park, four park palaces, canals, courts, and associated buildings. The main north-south axis measures 632 metres, the eastern front extends 538 metres, the park covers about 180 hectares, and the entire complex covers about 229 hectares.
Palace and Ceremonial Rooms
Central Pavilion and Stone Hall
The original central pavilion is a five-storey, cube-shaped block built from 1664 and substantially completed in 1675. Constructed with Kelheim limestone, it was based partly on the Piedmontese hunting palace of Venaria Reale. Its early design included prominent dormer structures, which were removed during alterations in 1678. The palace’s principal ceremonial room, the Stone Hall, occupies three storeys of the central pavilion. François de Cuvilliés redesigned it from 1755, while Johann Baptist Zimmermann directed its fresco decoration. The central ceiling fresco depicts Helios in his chariot accompanied by other gods. The hall retains the basic form of the first building phase and the window arrangement introduced by Viscardi.
State Apartments and Galleries
North of the Stone Hall are a wood-panelled antechamber, an audience room with Brussels tapestries, and a former bedroom containing the Little Beauty Gallery of court ladies from Versailles. These rooms were remodelled in the Régence style under Maximilian II Emanuel, a French transitional style between the late Baroque and Rococo, while retaining Baroque ceiling fields and portraits of the elector and his wife, Therese Kunigunde. The northern suite also includes Maximilian III Joseph’s Drechsel Cabinet, designed by Cuvilliés, and three rooms created when the gallery wings were widened under Charles Theodore. Their furnishings include portraits of court ladies, a woven carpet bearing the allied arms of Bavaria and the Palatinate, and portraits of Charles Theodore and his consorts.
South of the Stone Hall are rooms containing portraits of Charles Albert, the founding couple Ferdinand Maria and Henriette Adelaide, and Maximilian II Emanuel and Therese Kunigunde. Their original Baroque ceilings survive. The adjoining Lacquer Cabinet is almost entirely covered with Chinese coromandel-lacquer panels depicting scenes from a Chinese novel, and Franz Xaver Feichtmayr executed its stucco ceiling. The north and south galleries contain views of Bavarian castles. Behind the southern gallery are the writing cabinet and antechamber of Charles Theodore, created when the gallery wings were widened.
Later Alterations
The galleries were widened toward the park in 1795, creating additional rooms with classical decoration. Between 1806 and 1810, the first southern pavilion was refitted in the Empire style after most of its Baroque furnishings had been removed. In 1826, Leo von Klenze replaced the main pavilion’s gables and electoral coats of arms with an attic. In 1848, the inaccessible second upper storey was expanded with new living quarters.
Southern Pavilions and Court Collections
Gallery of Beauties and Royal Apartment
The inner southern pavilion originally contained the electress’s apartments. It now houses the Gallery of Beauties, commissioned by King Ludwig I and painted by Joseph Karl Stieler. The collection comprises 36 portraits of women from all social classes of Munich, including Helene Sedlmayr and Lola Montez. Nearby are Queen Caroline’s study and bedroom, an Empire-style audience room, and the bedroom in which Ludwig II was born on 25 August 1845. The birth room contains mahogany furniture made around 1815. A five-room apartment above it remains a Wittelsbach residence.
Southern Service Buildings
The outer southern pavilion served as a kitchen under Maximilian II Emanuel and was later remodelled in the Neoclassical style. The third southern pavilion, formerly the Comedihaus, became a kitchen building from 1750. The Southern Water Passage, built in 1747, connects it with the Marstall in the south wing.
Marstallmuseum
The former royal stables contain the Marstallmuseum, with carriages, sleighs, harnesses, and saddles. Its collection includes the coronation coach used for Charles VII’s coronation in 1742 and vehicles associated with Ludwig II. The first floor contains a collection of Nymphenburg porcelain, while the Porcelain Manufactory occupies a building in the northern part of the rondell.
Northern Pavilions and Wings
Crown Prince Building and Chapel
The inner northern pavilion, later called the Crown Prince Building, contains representative rooms from Maximilian II Emanuel’s parade apartment. Its upper floors serve as residential quarters for the head of the Wittelsbach family. The outer northern pavilion contains the palace chapel. Joseph Adam Mölk painted its ceiling paintings and frescoes in 1759 with scenes from the life of Saint Mary Magdalene. An older sculpture group of Christ and Mary Magdalene stands before the Baroque high altar painting.
Gardemeublebau and Water Passage
The Gardemeublebau, built in 1723 as the third northern pavilion, originally served games including billiards and a ball game. The Northern Water Passage, built in 1739, connects it with the north wing.
Orangerie Wing
The two-storey connecting wings lead to the four-winged Orangerie in the north and the Marstall in the south. The Marstall was largely complete by 1719, while Johann Baptist Gunetzrhainer completed the Orangerie in 1755 to 1758. The north wing contains the central entrance portal beneath the clock tower, which gives access to the Orangerie Hall. The Hubertus Hall and Johannis Hall occupy the upper floor and are used as event spaces. The park-facing western section has housed the Museum of Man and Nature since 1990, and the Maria Ward Elementary School occupies the adjoining area.
Courts, Facades, and Palace Infrastructure
Between 1702 and 1704, Zuccalli and Viscardi added two-storey arcaded galleries and four approximately square, three-storey pavilions, two on each side of the central building. The outer pavilions were shifted eastward to create the ceremonial court. Viscardi remodelled the central building with groups of three large round-arched windows, added the western garden staircase as a counterpart to the eastern staircase, created the ground-floor entrance hall, and built the palace chapel in the second northern pavilion in 1713. From 1716, Joseph Effner remodelled the main facades after French models, framing the three large arched windows on each storey with fluted pilasters extending to the roof. He also created French Régence apartments.
The Schlossrondell consists of ten symmetrically arranged palace residences in two groups of five. Built between 1728 and 1758 for senior court officials, they formed the planned approach to an unrealized city called Carlstadt. The eastern canal and its flanking approach avenues were constructed between 1728 and 1730. The palace was historically linked by an avenue with Fürstenried Palace, while a water connection with Schleissheim Palace was planned through the Nymphenburg-Biederstein Canal. The approach avenues still connect the palace with Munich, and a former visual axis led northwest toward Blutenburg Castle.
The palace has two historic pumping installations. The Green Pump House contains a system installed by Joseph Baader in 1803 for the garden-parterre fountain. The Johannis Pump House contains a system installed in 1807 to 1808 for the great fountain before the palace. The latter is described as Europe’s oldest still-operating pumping station, and both installations continue to operate the palace and garden fountains.
Park and Water System
The park is organized around the central canal and the Great Cascade, which divide it into northern and southern sectors. Water enters from the Würm through the Pasing-Nymphenburg Canal, part of Munich’s northern canal system, and leaves through canals toward the east and northeast and through the Hartmannshofer Bach. The southern sector contains the larger Badenburg Lake, the Apollo Temple, Badenburg, the Green Pump House and watermill, and Amalienburg. The northern sector contains the smaller Pagodenburg Lake and Pagodenburg, while the Magdalenenklause occupies the northeastern park.
Barelli’s original garden west of the palace was a small Italian-style parterre. It was enlarged and reorganized in the French Baroque manner between 1701 and 1704. In the early nineteenth century, the garden was transformed into an English-style landscape park while retaining major Baroque elements. Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell developed the southern section from 1804 to 1807 and completed the northern section between 1810 and 1823, retaining the principal Baroque garden elements, including the Grand Parterre.
Great Cascade and Garden Boundaries
Joseph Effner built the Great Cascade in 1717 from a concept by François Roëttiers. Its two-part water staircase is symmetrical about the central canal. The right side was faced with pink marble in 1770, and sculptures were added between 1775 and 1785, including works by Dominik Auliczek and Roman Anton Boos. Twelve mythological marble vases were added later. The park wall, built between 1730 and 1735, incorporates several ha-ha features, which are recessed boundary ditches that control movement without interrupting a designed landscape view.
The Northern Cabinet Garden, also called the Kaisergarten, lies beside the north wing. The Southern Cabinet Garden contains an octagonal birdhouse built by Cuvilliés in 1757. The small settlement called the Dörfchen and the Salettl cottage with its garden were created as court-garden attractions under later Wittelsbach rulers.
Park Palaces
Pagodenburg
Pagodenburg was built by Effner between 1716 and 1719 as an octagonal, two-storey tea pavilion. The lower floor has Delft-tile decoration, while the upper floor contains Chinoiserie interiors, a European style that imitates or imaginatively adapts Chinese artistic forms. The exterior includes masks associated with Bacchus, Flora, Neptune, and Ceres.
Badenburg
Badenburg was built by Effner between 1719 and 1721 as a two-storey Baroque bathing pavilion. It contains a banqueting hall, a large tiled bath with a pool, Chinese printed wallpapers in the dressing room, and a Monkey Cabinet where the elector performed his toilette. The building is described as one of the earliest major European structures devoted exclusively to comfortable bathing and as one of the earliest heated indoor pools of the modern era.
Magdalenenklause
Effner built the Magdalenenklause between 1725 and 1728 as a retreat and hermitage for Maximilian II Emanuel. Its deliberately ruinous architecture incorporates Romanesque, Gothic, and Moorish elements. The prayer room and chapel were intended for contemplation and meditation, and Cuvilliés painted the chapel ceiling with scenes from the life of the penitent Mary Magdalene.
Amalienburg
François de Cuvilliés built Amalienburg between 1734 and 1739 for Charles Albert and Maria Amalia of Austria as a Rococo hunting lodge. It includes a Hall of Mirrors designed by Johann Baptist Zimmermann and Joachim Dietrich, a hunting room, a kennel room for hunting dogs, and a kitchen with Dutch faience tiles. Its decorative program uses silver and gold effects and is regarded as a major European Rococo work.
Apollo Temple and Later Construction
Leo von Klenze built the Apollo Temple between 1862 and 1865 as a Neoclassical monopteros, a circular temple or pavilion with a colonnade and no enclosed central room, in the southern park. The west wing of the south tract was built between 1986 and 1989 on the site of a former carriage shed, completing the exterior according to the original plans. An Iron House in the park, associated with the surviving wartime bunker, is used with the Hubertus, Orangerie, and Johannis halls for functions.
The palace and park water features, long axes, canals, approach avenues, and four garden palaces form the principal monumental composition. The palace itself is aligned with the spring equinox, making its calendar-oriented plan part of the complex’s architectural organization.
