Munich...castles and churches

Main Aisle of the Frauenkirche

Well, I am a little bit behind on this blog as I am in Italy now...

Munich is a lot more than just Oktoberfest.

I spent a few days touring through their beautiful churches;
lighting candles and listening to organ music.

Three main churches surround the main square Marianplatz.
The one everybody knows from Munich's famous skyline in the twin domes towers of the Frauenkirche.  Inside tall white columns stretch to the fan vaulting overhead.  It's a very light and airy church without the heavy marble and colorful stained glass of many European churches. Behind the altar there is and beautiful shrine with gold leaves on wrought iron.


Surrounding the church are many cobblestone streets with small restaurants and beer gardens.  I ate in the Andechs beer gardens two nights in a row.  The best food of my whole trip was definitely in Munich.  And the dark Andechs Bavarian Dunkles Beer was sweet and nutty; a perfect complement to the rich sauces and spicy meats of Germany.

St. Peters 

Two other churches that surround the town square are the Baroque St. Peters with it's rich over-the-top gold
decorations and the oldest church in the region.  It is thought to
be the original starting point for the city.
It's the opposite of the Frauenkirche- heavy and
ornamented with a huge golden altarpiece.

St. Michael's

    
The last of the three is St. Michael's.  It is the main
church for the Jesuits in the north of Europe- a bastion
against the Protestants during the reformation. Bavaria itself is very conservative and traditional. St. Michael's was severely damaged during World War II. The entire dome and altar was destroyed and then rebuilt. The atmosphere inside was hushed.  The ceiling is barrel-vaulted and is supposed to be the largest
dome outside of St. Peters in Rome.  Many of the Wittlesbachs (the ruling dynasty in Bavaria)
are buried here.

     I also spent a day traveling to the south to Fussen to see the Kings Castles.
King Ludwig II of Bavaria ("Mad King Ludwig") grew up in a stunning castle in the
forested mountain landscape of southern Bavaria, sheltered from the Prussian court.
The castle overlooks an idyllic lake and the young prince was raised on tales of German heroic history- and idealized combination of myths and history.

Howenschwangau-childhood castle

He was friends with the Opera composer Richard Wagner.
Howenschwangau is as richly appointed as you would expect.  The dining hall had a stunningsilver plated chandelier.  There is a small garden in the back with a fountain and sculptured hedges.
He built his own fairytale castle near his childhood home called Neuschwanstein. It is the castle that Walt Disney based his castle on. EVERY inch of the interior is

Neuschwanstein Castle

decorated with fanciful woodland and heroic scenes.  Even the stairwells circle up(and their were alot of stairs to climb) are decorated with mystic creatures and scrolling leaves.
The trip down was long and the trip back even longer but the landscape is everything you could hope for.

Stairwell

View out the window

Ludwig's Private Chape

Silver Swan

View from the castle balcony