Residenz, Munich

The Residenz is Munich’s former royal palace, now a museum of architecture, decorated rooms, and Wittelsbach collections. Its story begins as a fortress and grows into a vast palace complex, shaped over centuries by Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, and Classical architects. The surviving ensemble brings together the Königsbau, the Alte Residenz, and the Festsaalbau, along with the Cuvilliés Theatre and the Court Church of All Saints.

Look toward the courtyards within the complex: there are ten, and the palace contains 130 rooms. The most remarkable early space is the Antiquarium, created between 1568 and 1571 for a sculpture collection. It occupies an entire floor and is the largest Renaissance hall north of the Alps.

In the Grottenhof, Friedrich Sustris created a court with a grotto façade and the Perseus Fountain between 1581 and 1586. The palace served Bavaria’s Wittelsbach rulers from 1508 to 1918. War destroyed the ensemble, but it was rebuilt under Otto Meitinger’s direction. Its scale is extraordinary: more than 40,000 square metres of ground area make it Germany’s largest city palace, with more than 150 display rooms.