A magnificent palace, only a little of the way out of town.

No trip to Munich is complete without a visit to Schloss Nymphenburg. Located within the inner zone of the city and easily accessible by tram or bus, Schloss Nymphenburg is a baroque style palace and was the main summer residence for the royal House of Wittelsbach. Now, tourists and residents alike flock to the Nymphenburg palace to view its grandeur and enjoy its extensive grounds.

The juxtaposition between tradition and modernity that you’ll find in the city of Munich as a whole is characterised by the palace’s close proximity to the centre of town; get on the tram, pass by branches of Mercedes and BMW, and you arrive, feeling as if you've been transported back to the eighteenth century.

It won’t take you too long to view the palace itself, with the Great Hall being the most grandiose and impressive room you can see. The decor and furniture within the palace is a prime example of the neo-classical, baroque, and rococo styles that were all the rage while it was being built. There is an impressive collection of paintings and wall hangings housed within the palace as well, including the ‘thirty-six beauties’, thirty-six portraits of beautiful women that king Ludwig I commissioned for his Schönheitengalerie. While visiting, you get a sense of how, with the palace handed down from generation to generation, it expanded, becoming something like a small town within its own right. The stucco interiors, the decor, and the furniture illustrate not just a few years in the palace’s history, but a few hundred.

On 13 June, during their second trip to Munich, the Mozarts visited Nymphenburg. Here they played at night between 8:00 – 11:15 pm before Elector Maximilian Joseph III and the Bavarian nobility. Nannerl was the principal performer and received the greatest applause. Years later, on 21 November 1766, the Mozart children performed for the Bavarian Elector again, with Mozart displaying his new talent for improvised composition, using a theme by the Elector. 1777 Mozart spoke to the Elector privately about a position in Munich, at table in Nyphenburg, where he was told, "It is too early now."

After viewing the palace you can explore the grounds, which are enormous. Smaller buildings including pavilions and a mock ruined chapel dot the gardens so it is worth having a good look around. If the sun is out you could easily spend the whole day at Schloss Nymphenburg but even if you don’t have that much time to spare, you should have a quick look.

Schloss Nymphenburg

Schloß Nymphenburg 1, 80638 München

Richard Bartz, Munich aka Makro Freak / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Luftbild_aerial_photograph_Park_und_Schloss_Nymphenburg_M%C3%BCnchen_Bayern_Bavaria_Germany_-_Foto_Wolfgang_Pehlemann_HSBD1057.jpg