The Munich Residence and the Treasury Germany

The Munich Residence

The Munich Residence is the former royal palace of the Bavarian monarchs of the House of Wittelsbach in the center of the city of Munich.

The Munich Residence originated as a small moated castle, built in 1385, and was gradually expanded by the Wittelsbach rulers who used it until 1918 as their residence and seat of government.

The castle built in 1385 in the north-eastern corner of the city as it was then, the so-called Neuveste, formed the original core of the present Residence. From here the rulers extended their palace to create a large complex grouped around several courtyards.

Highlights are the Antiquarium (Hall of Antiquities), the largest secular Renaissance hall north of the Alps, the early 17th-century rooms, including the Reiche Kapelle (Ornate Chapel), the Steinzimmer (Stone Rooms) and the Trierzimmer (Trier Rooms), the magnificent Rococo Rooms (Ancestral Gallery and Ornate Rooms by François Cuvilliés the Elder) and the neoclassical Königsbau (King's Tract) created by Leo von Klenze.

 

 

Also on display are special collections such as silver, ecclesiastical vestments and porcelain from Europe and East Asia.

 
The tour of the Munich Residence comprises the remarkable Nottbohm Collection of European Miniatures, an extensive collection of fine miniatures dating from the late sixteenth century to the mid-nineteenth.
 

Duke Stephan III the Magnificent (r. 1375-1392) to Duke Wilhelm IV (r. 1508-1550)

• Building of the Neuveste, 1385
  
• Gradual extension continuing into the 16th century (sections under the Apothecary Courtyard and the east wing of the Festival Hall Building have been preserved and can be visited on the occasion of special Residence events)
  

Duke Albrecht V (r. 1550-1579)

• Building of the Antiquarium from 1568 to 1571 from designs by Jacopo Strada and Simon Zwitzel to display the ducal collection of ancient sculptures
   
  

  Duke Wilhelm V (r. 1579-1597)

• The Antiquarium is more lavishly decorated between 1584 and 1600 under the direction of Friedrich Sustris.
  
• Grotto Courtyard buildings, 1581-1586
  
• Construction of the Black Hall c. 1590
  
• Crown Prince Building and Dowager’s Building, 1580-1581 and 1591/94 on Residenzstraße (not preserved)
   
  

• Duke / Elector Maximilian I (r. 1598-1651, from 1623 as elector)

• Summer apartment on the present Residenzstraße, extension of the Court Ladies’ Building with the Old Hercules Hall between the Imperial the Chapel Courtyards (c. 1600)
  
• Court Chapel, 1601-1603, with the choir added in 1630
  
• Rich Chapel (consecrated in 1607)
  
• West façade on the present Residenzstraße; Imperial Courtyard buildings with Imperial Staircase, Imperial Hall, Four White Horses Hall, Stone Rooms and Treves Rooms, 1612-1616 (interior by Hans Krumpper and Peter Candid)
  
• Rebuilding of the Fountain Courtyard, connection of the new buildings to what remained of the Neuveste by corridors, 1613-1615
  
• A new Court Garden is laid out north of the Residence from 1613.
  
  
  
  

  Duke / Elector Maximilian I (r. 1598-1651, from 1623 as elector)

• Summer apartment on the present Residenzstraße, extension of the Court Ladies’ Building with the Old Hercules Hall between the Imperial the Chapel Courtyards (c. 1600)
  
• Court Chapel, 1601-1603, with the choir added in 1630
  
• Rich Chapel (consecrated in 1607)
  
• West façade on the present Residenzstraße; Imperial Courtyard buildings with Imperial Staircase, Imperial Hall, Four White Horses Hall, Stone Rooms and Treves Rooms, 1612-1616 (interior by Hans Krumpper and Peter Candid)
  
• Rebuilding of the Fountain Courtyard, connection of the new buildings to what remained of the Neuveste by corridors, 1613-1615
  
• A new Court Garden is laid out north of the Residence from 1613.
  
  
   
  

  Elector Ferdinand Maria (r. 1651-1679)

  Golden Hall building and apartment of the electress (Papal Rooms) on the present Residenzstraße, 1666-1667
  

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  Elector Maximilian II Emanuel (r. 1679-1726)

  

  

• Building and furnishing of the Alexander and Summer Rooms on the Grotto Courtyard in 1680-1685 by Henrico Zuccalli (not preserved)
  
• Renovation of the Stone Rooms and Four White Horses Hall after they had been damaged by a fire in 1674, 1690-1700
  
• Building of St Cecilia’s Chapel by Henrico Zuccalli, 1693-1704
  
  
  
   Elector Karl Albrecht (r. 1726-1745, from 1742 as Roman Emperor Karl VII)
  
• Ancestral Gallery and Treasure Cabinet (now the Porcelain Cabinet) designed by Joseph Effner and François Cuvilliés the Elder, 1726-1730
  
• From 1730 to 1737 François Cuvilliés the Elder also builds and furnishes a new state apartment, the Rich Rooms, on the Grotto Courtyard, as well as the Green Gallery belonging to this suite, which is erected on the site of the former south Residence Garden.
  

Elector Max III Joseph (r. 1745-1777)

• Renovation of the Electoral Rooms above the Antiquarium 1746-1748 by Johann Baptist Gunetzrhainer, renovation by François Cuvilliés the Elder, 1760-1763
  
• Building of the Old Residence Theatre (Cuvilliés Theatre) as the court opera house, originally in the south part of the Residence, by François Cuvilliés the Elder, 1751-1755
  

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Elector Karl Theodor (r. 1777-1799)

From 1789 the English Garden is laid out as a public garden by Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell.
 Elector Max IV Joseph (r. from 1799) /

King Max I Joseph (r. 1806-1825)

• The Imperial and Four White Horses Halls are remodelled by Charles-Pierre Puille and Andreas Gärtner to create the Court Garden Rooms, 1799-1816.
  
• Council of State Chambers along the Residenzstraße, 1810
  
• Remodelling of the Old Hercules Hall (now Max Joseph Hall) by Andreas Gärtner, 1814-1816
  
• Decoration of the Charlotte Rooms on the Fountain Courtyard, 1814
  
• Building of the Court Riding School on Marstallplatz by Leo von Klenze, 1817-1822
  

King Ludwig I (r. 1825-1848)

• Building of the Royal Palace with the royal apartments and the Nibelungen Halls by Leo von Klenze, 1826-1835
  
• Erection of the Court Church of All Saints by Leo von Klenze, 1826-1835
  
• The remaining part of the Neuveste above ground is demolished and replaced with the Festival Hall Building with the Apothecary wing by Leo von Klenze, 1835-1842
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

King Maximilian II (r. 1848-1864) Building of a conservatory on the roof of the Old Residence Theatre by Franz Jakob Kreuter and August von Voit, 1854

King Ludwig II (r. 1864-1886)

• Creation of a residential apartment in the north-western pavilion on Odeonsplatz by Franz Seitz, 1866-1869
  
• Building of a conservatory over the Imperial Hall building by Eduard Riedel and August von Voit, 1868-1869
  Prince Regent Luitpold (r. 1886-1912

Building of the Old Treasury by Julius Hofmann (now the ticket centre), 1897

King Ludwig III (r. 1913-1918)
Technical modernization, especially in the Royal Palace (electric lighting, central heating, plumbing, lift)
 
After the monarchy came to an end in 1918, the Residence lost its function as a seat of government and was turned into a museum of interior design, which opened its doors in 1920. The Second World War had catastrophic consequences for the Residence: in March and April 1944 much of the upper storey and numerous vaulted ground-floor rooms were gutted. Most of the moveable inventory had however been taken out beforehand and stored in a safe place. A Residence building office was set up as early as May 1945 to prepare for the subsequent reconstruction of this building complex in view of its great historical and cultural value. The reconstruction took several decades. This was the responsibility of the Residence construction management, which was answerable to the Bavarian Department of State-owned Palaces, Gardens and Lakes, and worked closely with the Department’s art historians and the newly founded restoration workshops.

• 1953: Opening of the Hercules Hall as a concert hall in place of the Throne Room of Ludwig I in the former Festival Hall Building.
  
• 1958: Reopening of the Cuvilliés Theatre on the Fountain Courtyard, reopening of the first section of the Residence Museum and the Treasury
  
• 1966-1979: Reopening of further sections of the Residence Museum
  
• 1980: Reconstruction of the apartments in the Royal Palace
  
• 1985: Reconstruction of the Imperial Hall building
  
• 2001: Reconstruction of the Miniatures Cabinet in the Rich Rooms
  
• 2002: Opening of the Royal Palace Courtyard and redesigning of the entrance area to the Residence Museum
  
• 2003: Reopening of the Court Church of All Saints
  
  

Church of All saints

 King Ludwig I had it built from 1826 to 1837 to designs by his court architect, Leo von Klenze. Largely destroyed in the Second World War, it was not re-opened to the public until the year 2003. Surviving parts of the original building were restored and missing sections carefully replaced. The interior was then refurbished in a simple modern style as a venue for concerts and other events.

The idea for the Court Church of All Saints went back to a visit Ludwig paid to Palermo in 1823, when he was Crown Prince. After attending Midnight Mass in the palace chapel there, which is built in a mixture of Norman and Byzantine styles, he was allegedly so moved that he exclaimed: "That's the kind of court chapel I want!" To comply with Ludwig's wishes, Klenze took St Mark's in Venice as his model because he saw this as a quintessentially Byzantine building, but interpreted his model in terms of classical antiquity.
 
Frescoes on a gold ground originally decorated the vaulting and the apses. The floor of the church once consisted of coloured marble and the walls were clad with plaster imitation marble. You can see remains of this imitation marble on the entrance wall. Columns of red marble support the galleries. Ludwig I could reach the galleries directly from the Residence to attend Mass. The populace entered the church via the portal in the east façade, which Klenze designed in a combination of Romanesque and Gothic styles.

This Roman Catholic court church acquired special significance through being the first ecclesiastical building to be erected in Bavaria since the confiscation of church property in 1803. It was therefore no accident that the new church was dedicated to All Saints.

 Treasury

The Wittelsbachs' Treasury, founded in 1565 by Duke Albrecht V, is one of the most important of its kind in Europe.  

Duke Albrecht V made a provision in his will that all valuable pieces he had collected should be given a special place and could never, ever be sold. That was the beginning of what today can be admired in the treasury. 

 

His successors continued to add and the treasury was first opened to the public in 1897. It is 10 rooms of absolutely amazing pieces including items from the time of Charlemagne and religious pieces from the amazing churches and monasteries in the region.

The collection covers the late Graeco-Roman period and the Middle Ages, with exhibits such as the Ciborium of King Arnulf (around 890) and the Cross of Queen Gisela (after 1006), the late Gothic and Renaissance periods, with the statuette of St George (photo), created between 1586 and 1597, and the baroque and neoclassical eras. 

Among the treasures are priceless objects made of rock crystal, gems and ivory, as well as religious art, orders and insignia, tableware and toilet sets designed by Nuremberg and Augsburg goldsmiths and exotic craft work.

Agrigento Italy

Agrigento is a hilltop city on Sicily's southwest shore. It's known for the Valley of the Temples, a vast archaeological site with well-preserved Greek temples and the ruins of the ancient city of Akragas. On the modern city's outskirts is the Museo Archeologico Regionale Agrigento, with artifacts and a telamon (huge male statue). West lies Scala dei Turchi, an unusual stepped white cliff overlooking sandy beaches.

 


Founded as a Greek colony in the 6th century B.C., Agrigento became one of the leading cities in the Mediterranean world. Its supremacy and pride are demonstrated by the remains of the magnificent Doric temples that dominate the ancient town, much of which still lies intact under today's fields and orchards. Selected excavated areas throw light on the later Hellenistic and Roman town and the burial practices of its early Christian inhabitants.
 
Agrigento has a special place among classical sites in the history of the ancient world because of the way in which its original site, typical of Greek colonial settlements, has been preserved, as well as the substantial remains of a group of buildings from an early period that were not overlain by later structures or converted to suit later tastes and cults.

 
This splendid archaeological park consists of eight temples (and various other remains) built between about 510 BC and 430 BC: the Temple of Hera, the Temple of Concordia, the Temple of Heracles, the Temple of Olympian Zeus, the Temple of Castor and Pollux, the Temple of Hephaestos, the Temple of Demeter, and the Temple of Asclepius (the God of Medicine). Apart from this latter, which is to be found on the banks of the Akragas river, all are situated in the same area on rocky crests south of modern day Agrigento (not really in a Valley at all!).
 

• Temple of Concordia, whose name comes from a Latin inscription found nearby, and which was built in the 5th century BC. Turned into a church in the 6th century AD, it is now one of the best preserved in the Valley.  
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  From 2011 onwards in front of the temple is the bronze statue of Icarus, made by the Polish artist Igor Mitoraj

  

  The temple was transformed in a catholic church in 597 and so it underwent a radical transformation. For example the main entrance was moved to the rear, the rear cella wall was destroyed and 12 arched apertures were opened in order to obtain a basilica with one central nave and two lateral aisles. 
  
  
  In 1748 the church returned to be a temple and thanks to these modifications the Temple of Concordia survived so well over the centuries. 
   
  
  The peristasis, the collonade, is made of 6x13 columns with a base of four steps. Each column is 6,75m high and is in fact a vertical cylinder that is slightly wider at the bottom. It consists of four drums with the typical doric broad flutes. The columns also have the entasis, the application of a convex curve, an art of swelling, in their lower third in order to correct the optical illusion of the column's concavity
  
  
   
  

• Temple of Juno, also built in the 5th century BC. It was burnt in 406 BC by the Carthaginians.

 

• Temple of Heracles, who was one of the most venerated deities in the ancient Akragas. It is the most ancient in the Valley: destroyed by an earthquake, it consists today of only eight columns.
• Temple of Olympian Zeus, built in 480 BC to celebrate the city-state's victory over Carthage. It is characterized by the use of large scale atlases.
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Two Telamons - supporting statue from the Temple of Zeus are in the area

 The telamon, which lies on the ground, was originally used to support the Temple of Olympian Zeus (Jupiter).

• Temple of Castor and Pollux. Despite its remains including only four columns, it is now the symbol of modern Agrigento.

• Temple of Vulcan, also dating from the 5th century BC. It is thought to have been one of the most imposing constructions in the valley; it is now however one of the most eroded.
• Temple of Asclepius, located far from the ancient town's walls; it was the goal of pilgrims seeking cures for illness.

 

Modern Agrigento used to be the Greek city of Akragas, a colony of settlers mainly from Rhodes and Crete who, having initially settled in Gela, decided to move west, partly in an attempt to stem the ambitious advances of Selinunte and partly because the land in the area was ideal for cultivating olives, grapes and cereal. The city, supposedly founded in 582 BC, soon became prosperous and, in its glory days, was one of the most important and most culturally-advanced Greek cities in the Mediterranean.
 
However, as it grew more and more successful, so did its rivalries with other Greek colonies, especially that of Siracusa. In 406 BC Hannibal and the Carthaginians, working in cahoots with Dionysius of Siracusa, laid siege to the city. After holding out for eight months, Akagras finally fell and its citizens were removed to Gela. Later, they were allowed to return but were prohibited from fortifying their town and had to pay taxes to Carthage.
 
After a relatively peaceful (if undistinguished period), Akagras was thrown into the First Punic War (264 BC) on the side of the Carthaginians and defeated by the Romans in 210 BC.
 
Agrigento was a wealthy ancient city founded about 581 bc by Greek colonists from Gela. It was ruled 570–554 bc by the notorious tyrant Phalaris, who was reputed to have had men roasted alive in a brazen bull, and it reached its peak in 480 when the tyrant Theron, in alliance with Syracuse, won the decisive Battle of Himera over the Carthaginians.
 
In 470 the tyranny was replaced by a democracy. Agrigento was the birthplace of the philosopher-politician Empedocles. Under the tyranny it was a considerable centre of the arts.

The city was neutral in the struggle between Athens and Syracuse but was ravaged by the Carthaginians in 406 bc, a disaster from which it never really recovered. Refounded by the Greek general and statesman Timoleon in 338, it achieved some local importance in the early 3rd century bc but was sacked by the Romans (262) and the Carthaginians (255) before falling finally to Rome in 210 bc.
 
 Under Roman rule its agricultural wealth and the exploitation of the nearby sulfur mines ensured a modest prosperity. In late antiquity its inhabitants withdrew to the relative security of the medieval hilltop town of Girgenti, the nucleus of modern Agrigento.
 
Occupied and colonized by the Saracens in 828, Girgenti was captured in 1087 by the Norman conqueror of Sicily, Count Roger I, who established a Latin bishopric.
 
The plateau site of the ancient city is extraordinarily rich in Greek remains. A wall, with remnants of eight gates, can be traced from the two northern peaks (the Rock of Athena and the hill of Girgenti) to the ridge that carried the south line of the city’s defenses. An almost continuous sacred area along this ridge has been excavated to reveal Agrigento’s most famous remains, its seven Doric temples.
 
The best preserved are two very similar peripteral, hexastyle temples conventionally, though wrongly, attributed to the goddesses Hera and Concordia; the latter temple, which lacks little but the roof, owes its remarkable preservation to having been converted into a church in ad 597.
 
The Temple of Zeus, in front of which stood a huge altar, was one of the largest and most original of all Doric buildings; it was still unfinished in 406 bc. Its ruins were quarried in 1749–63 to build the jetties of Porto Empedocle, and very little is now standing.
 
The Sanctuary of Demeter and Persephone (formerly known as the Temple of Castor and Pollux) is notable for many remains of archaic cult buildings. There is a pre-Hellenic cave sanctuary at the foot of the cliffs where the Temple of Demeter, underlying the Church of San Biagio, is found.

There are also ruined temples of Hephaestus and Asclepius (Aesculapius); the “tomb of Theron,” a late Hellenistic funerary monument; and the “Oratory of Phalaris,” a heroon (“heroic shrine”) of the 1st century ad adjoining the 13th-century Church of San Nicola.

A short distance to the east of the latter a considerable quarter of the Greek and Roman town has been excavated, but, apart from extensive remains of aqueducts and cisterns, little is known of the Greek civil or domestic architecture. Earlier classical cemeteries lie beyond the walls.

Agrigento’s economy is based on sulfur and potash mining, agriculture, and tourism. It is served by Porto Empedocle, 9 miles (15 km) southwest, the best harbour on the southwest coast of Sicily and Italy’s principal sulfur port.
 
The olive trees here in Agrigento are among the oldest in Sicily” ..