Medieval Munich

Munich is first documented on 14 June 1158, when Emperor Frederick Barbarossa settled a quarrel between Henry the Lion, Duke of Bavaria, and the Bishop of Freising over a new bridge and toll on the Isar at the monks’ settlement of ‘Munichen’. The Wittelsbachs, dukes of Bavaria from 1180, made it their residence in 1255, first in the Alter Hof — the walled court a few streets from Marienplatz where Emperor Louis IV, the Bavarian, held court in the 14th century — and from 1385 in the Neuveste, the fortress that grew into the Residenz.

The medieval town is still legible around Marienplatz, the market square laid out at the foundation. St Peter’s, the oldest parish church, stands on its low hill beside it; the Altes Rathaus (1470–80) closes the east side; and the twin towers of the Frauenkirche, built 1468–88 by Jörg von Halsbach and capped with their onion domes in 1525, rise behind. Three gates of the second ring wall of the 14th century survive: the Isartor (1337), the Sendlinger Tor and the Karlstor.

Wittelsbacherplatz, where the medieval Christmas market stands, is not medieval: it was laid out by Leo von Klenze in the 1820s north of Odeonsplatz and takes its name from the dynasty, whose Elector Maximilian I sits on Bertel Thorvaldsen’s equestrian statue in the middle of the square. The medieval core is a ten-minute walk south.