Nymphenburg Palace

Schloss Nymphenburg, or Nymphenburg Palace, was commissioned as a summer residence by Elector Ferdinand Maria in 1663. (He and his wife Henriette Adelaide also commissioned the Theatienrkirche.) The central pavilion was designed by Agostino Barelli and completed in 1675. It was to begin as a mere hunting lodge, but Ferdinand and Henriette's decsendants liked Nymphenburg and kept enlarging it into a full palace with formal gardens.

Elector Max Emanuel extended the palace beginning in 1701 by adding two pavilions and galleries designed by Enrico Zucalli and Giovanni Antonio Viscardi to the south and north of the central pavilion. Further extensions, adding the side wings, began in 1714.

The first palace had a small Italian garden, replaced with a large French Baroque garden in 1715-1726. The entire garden was relandscaped in 1804-1823 into a fashionable English formal garden. (The central axis and fountain remains from the Baroque garden.)

Nymphenburg today is a highlight of a Munich visit. Visitors can see just the palace, or take and tour of the Wittlesbach royal apartments, walk the extensive gardens, and see the many outbuildings in the gardens. (One was designed to look like a ruin.)

We had time only to see the exterior and a bit of the gardens. I'd certainly like to see more of this sprawling summerhouse and its grounds!

The palace tour is 6 Euros. Additional admission to other museums and collections on the grounds.

Nymphenburg Palace is a wonderful place to feel small. It used to be the summer residence of the rulers of Bavaria. Designed and built in the late 1600s it was added to several times and now covers a huge area with gigantic park both in front and behind. Today, Nymphenburg is open to the public, but also continues to be a home and chancery for the head of the house of Wittelsbach currently Franz, Duke of Bavaria. Our tour bus drove along the waterway leading to the overpowering front of the Palace, and we were allowed a few minutes to take pictures and drop our jaws at the splendor of the grounds but we didn’t get to take a tour. I got a couple of pictures but the best of the shots I have located is an aerial view showing just how huge the Palace is.