Schloss Nymphenburg: Main Palace

Full credit where credit is due, all of these photos were taken by the Fairy Tale Queen herself, my dear friend Forest!

Onward to the exploration!

When you arrive you are greeted with a canal which forms sort of a ‘grand mall’ entrance, with streets running on either side. These culminate into a semicircle with a pond in the middle and the palace set in the distance. If you came in via a hop-on-hop-off bus, you’ll be dropped off in this semi circle, greeted, in all likelihood, with a pond full of ducks, geese, seagulls, pigeons and swans.

I must admit, compared to the golden tones of Versailles, this palace can look rather dull with it’s white and grey exterior. Don’t let that fool you! Head towards the center building where you can purchase your ticket if you haven’t already. The staff member at the desk will direct you from there. If memory serves me you can climb up the two stone staircases at the front of the building. Once upon a time this might have been your entrance, if you were a peer in Germanic society, but today the main entrance is underneath the stairs. It’s a nice view point of the front pond, though!

If you’ve chosen to see the main palace and not just the grounds, you’re in for a fantastic treat. head upstairs to the main ballroom. Look up!

The outside of the building looks suspiciously dull, but inside is more along the lines of childhood dreams of what fairy tale palaces should look like. This is called a Rococo style, which was developed in the late Baroque period, and was a very popular style among European palaces. Take a moment to drink this ballroom in. I can imagine it on a cool, moonlit night, the doors flung open to allow the heat out from all of the guests. Candles flickering in shimmering chandeliers, gossip being exchanged, bargains being struck. All of this of course is a romanticism, but it’s nice to be able to live in that fairytale world, even for just a moment.

You’ll be directed in three ways, upstairs, which features the balcony and a music room, or to the wings of the palaces, rooms 2-9, and 10-20. Either way you’ll need to come back to the Grand Hall to go out into the gardens, so it doesn’t matter which path you choose first.

Rooms 2-9 represent the northern wing. Here you’ll find mainly anterooms and the portraits of Munich’s ‘Great Gallery of Beauties’. These are a series of five paintings from the mid 1700s representing the most beautiful women in the royal court at the time. This is not to be confused with the ‘Gallery of Beauties’ which is in the south wing, and is a series of nearly thirty paintings of women from all walks of life which was added in the early 1800s. This south wing also comprises of the Queen’s apartments, which includes a drawing room, an audience room, and her bedchamber.

When you’re ready, you can head outside to the gardens or to the carriage museum.