Palaces day 2. The Residenz and Treasury

Wow.  The amount of wealth accumulated by several centuries of Bavarian rulers is quite breathtaking. On Tuesday (last week) Mom and Dad and I went to the Munich Residenz (Palace) museum and the Schatzkammer (Treasury) within the palace and saw enough riches to feed the world for a few days at least...

TREASURY
We started in the Treasury, where we were astounded by the unbelievable amounts of gold, precious gems, ivory, crystal, you name it, from many different eras.
My favorite is this ruby- and diamond-covered statuette (50 cm high) of St. George slaying the (emerald-encrusted) dragon.

I won't include many of the thousands of treasures displayed there, but here are a few highlights.  (If you go to the link above, for the Treasury, you can find more detailed descriptions of various pieces.)

The "crown of an English queen" from the late 14th century.  Apparently this is the oldest surviving crown of England (passed on to Bavaria as part of a dowery).

The necklace below is huge -- the chain would fit around your waist and the stones are at least an inch across.

Here is the crown of the "kings of Bavaria" and the other royal insignia commissioned in 1806 when Napoleon declared the then prince-elector Maximilian IV Joseph to be King Maximilian I.  (The history of Bavarian rulers is very complicated, but essentially the rulers went from being "dukes" in the middle-ages to "prince-electors" in the 16- and 1700's, to kings from 1806 to 1918.)  The smaller crown to the right, for the queen, is made of many different sizes of pearls.

Many more crowns and jewels...

Then several rooms of carved stone and crystal.  I'm amazed that these delicate vessels are carved out of a single piece of rock-crystal.

For me the most intriguing thing in the Treasury was this traveling set, designed for, and given to, Napoleon's second wife.  There are more than 120 items which fit cleverly in this relatively small (and very beautiful) case -- from a gilded dinner set for two and writing instruments to toiletries and dental tools.

THE RESIDENZ:

As if these ten rooms of opulence in the Treasury weren't enough, we then went into the palace itself.  

This huge palace, in the center of town, was first built as a moated castle in 1385, and has been greatly expanded over the years.  It was the residence and seat of government for the Wittelsbach dynasty (the family who ruled Bavaria) from 1180 to 1918(!)  

There is a brief but interesting history of the Residenz here.  Much of it was destroyed by bombs during WWII but it has been beautifully restored (actually restoration is ongoing).  Most of the artwork had been removed from the city during the war, and so we saw many original pieces of furniture, paintings, china, etc.

I love the Ancestral Gallery, in Rococo style, which has over 100 portraits (set into the paneling, and with gilded frames) of the members of the Wittelsbach family.  I think there over 1000 years worth of ancestors depicted here.

The palace is immense (the roof is 23,000 square meters, that's nearly a quarter million square feet):  it has two floors, innumerable rooms, and many courtyards, so I won't begin to show a representation, but again here a few pictures. 

Most impressive to me was the Antiquarium, which the largest (66 m long) and most elaborate Renaissance style room north of the Alps.  

Duke Albrecht had it built in the late 1500s to house his collection of antique sculptures.  I think you can find every Roman Caesar in here...

The "Green Gallery" is lovely, with many mirrors, and gilded paintings.  It is at one end of an elaborate length of the palace called the Reiche Zimmer (ornate rooms)

Looking down the hall through all the doorways (with a painting above each) connecting the Reiche rooms...

 My camera can't do justice to this hall of mirrors, but it was very cool to be in there!

Here is the other end of the hall of ornate rooms.  It's called the "cabinet of miniatures"(with tiny, detailed, paintings set into the gold and red-enamelled walls) and has a large mirror in the center to give the impression of the rooms stretching out to infinity.

In the royal apartments on the 2nd floor, a bed fit for a king,

more long hallways

with pictures of the family,

 and of course you'd need a few hundred gold plates to serve the family properly...

Outside is also elaborate, but currently under a lot of renovation.  One of the courtyards, called the Grotto Court, has an elaborate "grotto" built in the 1580's next to the Antiquarium hall.  The fountain in the center was under construction, but the whole facade is covered in shell decorations.

That was a very full but very worthwhile day.  If any of you want to come visit, I'd love an excuse to go again!