Magdalenenklause, Munich

Magdalenenklause is a habitable artificial ruin tucked into a secluded woodland part of Nymphenburg Park. Joseph Effner began building it in 1725 for Elector Maximilian II Emanuel, and the structure belongs among Europe’s earliest garden ruins. Its rooms are fashioned as grottoes, turning the retreat into a deliberately somber place for withdrawal from court life and reflection.

Look through the entrance toward the grotto niche: Maria Magdalena appears there in a sculpture completed in 1726 by Giuseppe Volpini, beside a skull that brings the reminder of mortality into the scene. A small basin gathers water below; as local tradition has it, this came from a miraculous healing spring. The chapel bears a dedication to Maria Magdalena, and a marble tablet above the entrance records its consecration on 4 April 1728 by Clemens August, the son of Maximilian Emanuel.