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The Residenz (, Residence) in central Munich is the former royal palace of the Wittelsbach monarchs of Bavaria. The Residenz is the largest city palace in Germany and is today open to visitors for its architecture, room decorations, and displays from the former royal collections. The complex of buildings contains ten courtyards and displays 130 rooms. The three main parts are the Königsbau (near the Max-Joseph-Platz), the Alte Residenz (Old Residenz; towards Residenzstraße) and the Festsaalbau (towards the Hofgarten). A wing of the Festsaalbau contains the Cuvilliés Theatre since the reconstruction of the Residenz after World War II. It also houses the Herkulessaal (Hercules Hall), the primary concert venue for the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. The Byzantine Court Church of All Saints ( Allerheiligen-Hofkirche) at the east side is facing the Marstall, the building for the former Court Riding School and the royal stables.
The Gothic foundation walls and the basement vaults of the old castle including the round pillars of the so-called ballroom cellar ( Ballsaalkeller) are today the oldest surviving parts of the palace. The Residenz's development over the centuries did not take place only out of its main centre, the Neuveste, but in addition grew out of several single parts and extensions, the first of which used to be the Antiquarium. Finally, after more than four centuries of development, the giant palace had practically replaced a whole former city quarter with barracks, a monastery, houses and gardens. It assembles the styles of the late Renaissance, as well as of Baroque, Rococo and Neo-Classicism.
William V (1579–1597) ordered the construction of the Witwenstock (Widow Wing) for the dowager Duchess Anna and in 1581–1586 the four wings of the Grottenhof. Friedrich Sustris was the architect. Around 1590 the construction of the Black Hall was begun to the southeast on the Antiquarium. Under direction of Sustris the Erbprinzentrakt (Prince Wing), north of the Witwenstock, was added. Maximilian I (1597–1651) commissioned what is now called the Maximilian Residenz ( Maximilianische Residenz ), the west wing of the palace. Until the 19th century, it was the only publicly visible facade and it still is preserved. The portals are guarded by two lions and a statue of the Virgin Mary as patroness of Bavaria in a wall niche between the portals on the west side of the residence complex. Maximilian had rebuilt and connected the existing buildings. In addition, Maximilian I had from 1612 large parts of the south and west wings of the Neuveste with the Silver Tower demolished. Between 1611 and 1619, the wing at the large Emperor's Courtyard ( Kaiserhof) was created to the north of the complex. It documents the high political claims of Maximilian.
Its large dimensions satisfied Maximilian's successors up to 18th century, who contented themselves with interior upgrading and smaller extensions such as the wing for the Grüne Galerie (1730) and the Residenz Theatre (1751).
The octagonal Brunnenhof (Fountain Courtyard) served as a place for tournaments before the large Wittelsbach Fountain was erected in the middle of the courtyard in 1610. The buildings around the Kaiserhof (Emperor's Courtyard) with the Residenz Tower as clock tower, were erected from 1612 to 1618, in the reign of Maximilian I. Both courtyards are decorated with optical illusions on the facade, the same as the facade of the Alte Residenz.
The Königsbauhof (King's Building Courtyard) replaced a garden. At its eastern side the rococo facade of the Grüne Galerie (Green Gallery) is situated, designed by François Cuvilliés the Elder in of 1731–33.
Other courtyards are the Kapellenhof (Chapel Courtyard), the large Apothekenhof (Apothecary Courtyard) behind the Festsaalbau, the Puderhöfchen (Small Powder Courtyard), the Küchenhof (Kitchen Courtyard), the Kabinettsgarten (Cabinet Garden), and then finally the Zierhöfchen (Decorative Courtyard or Comité Courtyard).
In the Königsbau are numerous suites of rooms, including the State Apartment of Ludwig I on the first floor and the Nibelungen Halls on the ground floor. Today also the Treasury is situated in the ground floor of the Königsbau. The royal living rooms are still preserved; they served primarily for the representation and could be visited by appointment already at that time. The actual private apartments of the royal couple on the back of Königsbau have not survived due to their destruction in World War II. On the second floor were the so-called Festgemächer, which were intended for minor court festivities. The spatial sequence was divided into lounge, reception salon, dance hall, flowers hall and private rooms for the king. These rooms are still preserved but in a highly simplified form and are now home to the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts. From 2016 to 2018 the Yellow Staircase of Klenze was restored. Once it was the main entrance to the royal apartments in the Königsbau.
The Maximilian-Joseph Denkmal (King Maximilian-Joseph Memorial) at Max-Joseph-Platz (Maximilian-Joseph Square) stands in front of the Königsbau. It was created as a memorial for King Maximilian Joseph (1799–1825) by Christian Daniel Rauch and carried out by Johann Baptist Stiglmaier. It was only unveiled in 1835 as the king had rejected being depicted seated.
The Winter garden was commissioned by King Ludwig II of Bavaria (1864–1886) around 1870. After the king's death, the Winter Garden on the roof of the Festsaalbau of the Residenz Palace was dismantled in 1897. The reason for this was due to water leaking from the ornamental lake through the ceiling of the rooms below. Photographs and sketches still record this incredible creation which included a grotto, a Moorish kiosk, an Indian royal tent, an artificially illuminated rainbow and intermittent moonlight.Calore, 1998, pp. 164–165.
As early as the reign of King Ludwig I, interested citizens could by appointment (when the royal couple were not living in the Residenz) visit the Königsbau. Under Prince Regent Luitpold, it was possible to visit all the unused parts of the palace and the Old Treasury. In 1897 the first guide book for the Residenz in Munich was published. After the revolution of 1918, the Residenz became a public museum.
The palace was severely damaged by bombing during World War II. Most of its rooms were reconstructed by the 1980s. Some of the buildings, however, were rebuilt in a simplified manner. Examples of this are the facade of the Alte Residenz on Residenzstrasse or the Arcades in front of the former throne hall on the first floor of the Festsaalbau. A substantial loss was caused by the destruction of the neo-classical rooms and halls in the Festssalbau (including the Grand Throne Hall, now the Hercules Concert Hall, and the Grand Stairway), of the rich décor of the Papal Rooms including the ceiling of the Golden Hall and of the apartment of King Ludwig II (1864–1886). The frescoes of the Court Church of All Saints were also completely destroyed.
Restoration of historic interiors continues, most recently with the Yellow Staircase in the Konisgsbau, with work completed in 2021.
The Ancestral Gallery ( Ahnengallerie; 1726–1731) along with the Porcelain Cabinet (both constructed by Joseph Effner) and the Ornate Rooms ( Reichen Zimmer) designed by François de Cuvilliés for Charles Albert (1726–1745), are magnificent examples of the court Rococo style. The rich decoration was executed by Johann Baptist Zimmermann, Joachim Dietrich and Wenzeslaus Miroffsky. The two-storey exterior façade of the Green Gallery ( Grüne Gallerie) with its seven arched windows facing the courtyard of the Königsbau is a masterpiece of Cuvilliés. The Green Gallery, named after the wall covering made of green silk damask, was not only a ballroom, but also a gallery for paintings and mirrors. The magnificent Bedchamber ( Paradeschlafzimmer) served as the place for the electoral dressing procedure. Thus all the structures erected by the court architects Joseph Effner and François de Cuvilliés served only the glorification of the House of Wittelsbach and the attainment of the imperial crown, which ultimately succeeded in 1742. In January 1745, Charles Albert died as Emperor Charles VII in the Residenz, which was thus also for a short time the imperial palace of the Holy Roman Empire. In the times of Elector Maximilian III (1745–1777) the rococo Apartments of the Prince Elector ( Kurfürstenzimmer) were constructed between 1746 and 1763. Cuvilliés and Johann Baptist Gunetzrhainer were responsible for the work. The Neo-classical epoch is represented by the Charlotte Rooms ( Charlottenzimmer), the Royal Apartments and the Halls of the Battles ( Schlachtensäle) in the Königsbau. The wall and ceiling paintings are by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld in the Nibelungensäle (Nibelungen Halls; 1827–1834). They are the first monumental representations of the Nibelungenlied Nibelungen Saga of Songs. The actual private chambers of the royal couple at the back of the Königsbau no longer survive as they were destroyed in World War II. Leo von Klenze was not only responsible for the architecture, but also designed the floors, the wall paintings and all the furniture. In the Festsaalbau were spacious halls that contained the Grand Throne Room in the centre, the Imperial halls, the ballroom and the Battle Hall in the north-eastern pavilion. These facilities were intended only for state occasions and were only accessible by a grand staircase which no longer exists. Here the most important royal ceremonies were held, surrounded by twelve colossal statues sculpted by Ferdinand von Miller, representing the main Bavarian rulers.
In addition to the rich accumulation of furniture, paintings and sculptures, today the museum contains bronze work, clocks, tapestries, porcelain and several special collections such as masterpieces of bronze art, European miniatures and liturgical . The Wittelsbach dynasty porcelain collection includes items from their own Nymphenburg Porcelain Factory as well as from such famous porcelain producers such as Sèvres in France and Royal Porcelain from Berlin. The Wittelsbach East Asian collection includes over 500 pieces of porcelain and some paintings. In the Royal Silver Chambers, valuable pieces are housed. The collection of of the Munich Residenz come from the era of the Counter-Reformation. In the Festsaalbau bronze sculptures from the late 16th and early 17th centuries are presented, one of the richest collections of European bronze art from the Mannerism and early Baroque eras.
The remnants of some renaissance arcades in the north east of the park were integrated into the Bavarian State Chancellery in 1992. The people of Munich love to denounce it as the 'Straussoleum', named after a former state Premier who commissioned it, or even 'Munich White House', in reference to the long and hard fights that prevented the state government from erecting three giant wings instead of one. These wings it was claimed would have destroyed the overall impression of the court gardens. Its middle section with the a reconstructed dome are the only surviving sections of the former Bavarian Army Museum, constructed between 1900 and 1905 and almost completely destroyed during the bombing raids of World War II. The museum is now located in the Neues Schloss (New Palace) in Ingolstadt, around 80 kilometres north of Munich.
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