The main entrance to the Frauen Kirche
The main entrance to the Frauen Kirche
Mariam and her friends David & Maja
inside the Frauen Kirche. Note the high
ceilings. This church is unusual in that the interior walls have been
whitewashed rather than left native stone. This makes the church
considerably brighter and cheerier. Before Martin Luther's Protestant
Reformation, Catholic churches were very splendidly decorated, with
paintwork freizes and frescos linig the walls. Luther declared such
opulence to be counter to the church, so all such decorations were
stripped from the walls of most of the churches that underwent conversion
during the Reformation.
The Bayerische (Bavarian) State Theatre in München. This theatre has been
the site for many premieres of such greats as Richard Wagner.
The München Residenz, the palace where the
government of Bavaria worked, rather than at the far-flung castles of
Bavaria. This central location was also the home of the Bavarian
treasury, and today hosts a dandy museum.
Tha Maximilianeum, built for King Maximillian, in the mid 1800s
St Paul's Church, the third Protestant church in München. It looks
much older than it is, having been built in the 1880s.
The "New Town Hall" (Neu Rathaus) which is
also late 1800s. It looks much more gothic and older than the Old Town
Hall (Alt Rathaus), which pre-dates it by a hundred years and more.
The Neu Rathaus has a wonderful Glöckenspiel, visible below the clock
face, which used to chime charmingly on the hour in a procession of
little figures chasing each other about the face of the tower. Now
however, the Glöckenspiel rings only at 11: and 12:00
The fairytale castle of Neuschwanstein, from a distance, showing its
lovely setting in the Bayerische Alps.
Hohenshwangau castle, the residence of the
rulers of Bavaria in the 19th Century. It was built on the 9th Century
ruins of a castle used by the Schwan Knights, and has lovely
decorations inside depicting heros and good ladies, which were to
inspire a notable romantic and unrealistic streak in its most famous
occupant, the young Ludwig, who became Ludwig II, King of Bavaria.
Neuschwanstein again, seen from the streets
of the town Hohenschwangau
As you can see from this view, the castle of "Neuschwanstein" built by
King Ludwig II of Bavaria, was the basis of Walt Disney's "Magic
Kingdom" castle. Built in the 1880s, and never finished on the inside,
this castle has a fascinating history. Along with Schloß Linderhof,
and Chiemsee, Neuschwanstein was built by Ludwig to indulge his fantasies
of "the Knights of old" and also shows his love of the music of Richard
Wagner, a personal friend of the King. Both Hohenschwangau and
Neuschwanstein were built on the ruins of old castles (9th century) in the
Hohenschwangau area.
A view of the central keep once inside the gatehouse. The upper story of
the keep was built as a music/theatre hall and has fantastic acoustics.
Concerts are played there to this day in the summer.
A view up the valley behind Neuschwanstein