Sunday 18 May 2014

Nymphenburg Palace, Munich Germany (May 2014)





The Nymphenburg Palace, i. e., "Castle of the Nymph (or Nymphs)", is a Baroque palace in Munich, Bavaria, southern Germany. The palace is the main summer residence of the former rulers of Bavaria of the House of Wittelsbach.

The palace was commissioned by the prince-electoral couple Ferdinand Maria and Henriette Adelaide of Savoy to the designs of the Italian architect Agostino Barelli in 1664 after the birth of their son Maximilian II Emanuel. The central pavilion was completed in 1675. As a building material it utilised limestone from Kelheim. The castle was gradually expanded and transformed over the years.

Starting in 1701, Max Emanuel, the heir to Bavaria, a sovereign electorate of the Holy Roman Empire, undertook a systematic extension of the palace. Two pavilions were added each in the south and north of Barelli's palace by Enrico Zucalli and Giovanni Antonio Viscardi. In 1716 Joseph Effner redesigned the facade of the centre pavilion in French Baroque style with pilasters. Later, the south section of the palace was further extended to form the court stables. For the sake of balance, the orangery was added to the north. Finally, a grand circle (the Schlossrondell) with Baroque mansions (the so-called Kavaliershäuschen – cavalier's lodges) was erected under Max Emanuel's son Holy Roman Emperor Charles VII Albert.

In 1795 the Elector Charles Theodore ordered the widening of the galleries on the park side. In 1826 under King Ludwig I of Bavaria his architect Leo von Klenze removed the gables of the main pavilion with the Electoral coat of arms and created an attic decoration directly under the roof instead.

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