Altstadt Legends and Lore

The Frauenkirche is defined by its twin brick towers capped with rounded, copper onion domes. These towers rise nearly ninety-nine meters above the city, and municipal regulations prevent any new buildings in the center of Munich from…

A bronze dragon clings to the southwest corner of the New Town Hall, or Neues Rathaus, in Munich. This sculpture, known as the Wurmeck or Worm Corner, is perched high above the pedestrians in Marienplatz. The creature is part of the…

The Fischbrunnen is a fountain recognizable by the large bronze fish sculpture atop its central plinth, positioned directly in front of the main entrance to the New Town Hall on Marienplatz. While the current structure dates to nineteen…

St. Peter’s Church is identified by the ninety-one-meter tower that locals call Alter Peter, or Old Peter. Standing on a rise known as the Petersbergl, this is the oldest recorded parish church in Munich. Its history is tied to the city’s…

The bronze statue of Juliet Capulet sits tucked away near the Old Town Hall, just off the busy expanse of Marienplatz. It is a life-sized figure of Shakespeare’s heroine, cast in bronze, and recognizable by the way she is often adorned…

The Alter Hof stands as a complex of five wings in the heart of Munich, identified by the distinctive Gothic wooden bay window known as the Affenturm, or Monkey Tower. This site served as the first permanent imperial residence of the…

Four bronze lions crouch at the portals of the Munich Residenz, each holding a shield etched with an emblem and a Latin inscription. These figures, commissioned in the early seventeenth century by Duke Maximilian the First, were originally…