You will be amazed by the stylistic bandwidth of Munich’s landmarks. The same applies to the facades lining its streets and free standing monuments in its parks and squares. Individual styles are too many to enumerate and best left out. I find it interesting that a city so unmistakably German looks can wear with such ease its multiple personalities. This city is believably Italianate when you pass by the Residenz and Odeonsplatz. It is almost as convincingly Victorian along the central stretch of Maximilianstrasse. Most notably, Munich is thoroughly Greek around Kunstareal – there is a reason the Bavarian capital is mocked Athens on the Isar – with Ancient Greek monuments serving as inspiration, as prototype, as vocabulary, as blueprint for this incomparable museum district. In keeping with its bipolar personality, this pragmatic, materialistic city is well aware of its artistic worth. Munich seems to have alternated between long stretches of time when its architecture reached for, and attained, the pinnacle of worldly and cosmopolitan aspirations, and periods influenced by the folksy and primitive. All of this executed with South German precision and attention to detail.
The pretty face of Munich, its picture-perfect historic center – small courtyards, oddly shaped squares, castle-like silhouettes, unrealistically clean streets, saturated colors of the facades – has more in common with a village than a dynamic, living, breathing European city of culture. A ski village, to be precise, beautifully designed, overgrown and permanently misplaced, jam packed with ritzy store fronts, even inviting if somewhat sterile. Irregular medieval shapes – original and revived – coexist with the linear and the monumental, to a great visual effect. Objects that exist decidedly for embellishment – like the city’s 185 fountains – compete for your mindshare with things ruthlessly practical like the interminable retail arcades and government buildings. Anomalies abound in Munich too: outside the compact Altstadt, architectural gems coexist with bland stretches of blank facades rebuilt with haste, thrift, and self-deprecation after the war. Impressive, if unremarkable, prewar facades are scattered along Ludwigstrasse in Maxvorstadt to the North, around Hans-Sachs-Strasse to the South, and along Widenmayerstrasse embankment above Maximilianstrasse to the East. Puzzling as they are, such irregularities somehow make Munich a bit more real.
Munich is at its best when viewed from above. Evolving spontaneously at first, it was ultimately planned from the top as the Wittelsbacher rule grew more assertive, more confident of its civilizing mission. This is how the cityscape managed to retain its handcrafted, picturesque quality, uncommon for a managed built environment. Munich features several exceptionally photogenic 360-degree views of its dense, ornate, polychrome skyline and, if you are lucky, the Alpine backdrop. For those inquisitive enough to overcome the discomfort of climbing narrow, claustrophobic spiral stairwells, an aerial view of this metropolis will add a degree of freedom and a helpful dimension to your navigation, and at no incremental cost. People rave about the observation deck of the Neues Rathaus, more precisely its 85m high Rathausturm tower – I guess the deck just below its famous carillon of 47 bells offers a better shot at a real view of the snow-capped peaks on the horizon. I am not as easily convinced: the Neues Rathaus may be more valuable as a viewing target than a viewing platform: why settle for a view of Munich that is missing its townhall? My advice is to try the nearby Peterskirche instead: its easily accessible bell tower gallery owns a set of inimitable aerial views over the Altstadt roofscape – views of unalloyed near-perfect Instagram-worthiness, the utilitarian post-war reconstruction facades are barely visible – from a perfect elevation of just below 60m, not too high and not too low, and at an unbeatable angle. From up here, Munich – its aerial view of strict geometric patterns and bold primary colors – reads like a color-coded architectural mockup of a grand project: belfry spires, dome-capped clock towers, volute-flanked gables punctuating rectilinear stretches of red tile and green copper roofs. Ridges and rafters tracing the axes and intersections of major medieval roads. Corridors of underlying streets only guessed by tracing imaginary lines across roofs between recognizable shapes of church spires, civic monuments, and voids of negative space left by its open public spaces. This concoction of baroque, medieval, and neoclassical detail is relatively limited in its span, finite in extent, but breathtaking. And most importantly, choosing the Petreskirche tower as your vantage point allows you to view the Neues Rathaus, a physical impossibility when you are inside and atop the Rathaus. Try also the Southern tower of the distinctive Frauenkirche for a great view of the skyline and mountains, if and when it finally opens after the renovation.
♦ Panoramic Views from Peterskirche ♦
For a cozier but still spectacular roof-level view, don’t shy away from the hotel rooftop bar terraces – The Blue Spa Bar at the Bayerischer Hof, the grand old-timer of the patrician Pacellistrasse and Promenadeplatz, The Terrace at the Mandarin Oriental across the Altstadt, and the minimalist Louis Hotel on Viktualienmarkt, or the superbly designed Beyond by Geisel, another designer boutique hotel just opened right in the heart of it all, on Marienplatz, staring at the Neues Rathaus and ‘at eye level with the Glockenspiel‘ – just make sure it’s summer when you arrive, to get proper access during winter you may need to book a penthouse suite to get a view. Central Munich terraces with an incredible view are not limited to its classic ultra luxury collection and to obvious boutique hotels where floor to ceiling windows open onto a public space. There is significantly more here, this city is well aware of the panoramic potential of its roof line and keen to monetize it, but not before upgrading a mere view to an experience. Hotel Konigshof has the views of Karlsplatz, the palatial City Courthouse/Ministry of Justice but I would wait until its present-day building, dreadful and worn out, is replaced by a new one: on the drawing boards for next year, and will come with a rooftop restaurant of its own.
Whatever you do, try not to miss the city’s pretty much unique pop up sensation, the Lovelace – one of Munich‘s newest boutique hotels, it is by far its most interesting. This former HypoVereinsbank‘s event space since divested is a powerhouse of cultural programming that functions as a performing-and-visual-arts-center-cum-cultural-space, a multimedia arts project unfolding in real time, where you can also rent one of only 30 spacious, design conscious rooms for overnight stay, clean, minimalist old-meets-new look inside, enviable baroque detail across the street through floor to ceiling windows. The Lovelace boldly asserts itself atop elegant, palazzo lined Kardinal-Faulhaber-Strasse, its rooftop and balcony views are pure luxury. And here is my out-of-consensus advice: some old central Munich department stores offer a great option – public opinion remains split on its authenticity but I believe this one is meant for busy locals, what visitor would settle for a department store cafeteria – to stop and indulge in food and views. Check out the iconic Oberpollinger department store on Neuhauserstrasse, Le Buffet café and corner terrace in the back of its top floor will treat you to upscale buffet lunch and stunning views of the Kunstlerhaus across the street and of the elegant Lenbachplatz and Maximillianplatz further ahead. Across the street, the Grill, the rooftop establishment at the Kunstlerhouse, offers similar views of the beautiful Lenbachplatz in a noble setting albeit closer to street level. When in the museum district, Cafe im Vorhoelzer on the top floor of the Technical University across from the Alte and Neue Pinakothek has a terrace.
