Nymphenburg Palace

Geschichte

The Nymphenburg Palace, i. e., "Castle of the Nymph ", 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.HistoryBuilding HistoryThe 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 and connected with the centre pavilion by two gallery wings. 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 (1719). For the sake of balance, the orangery building was added to the north and only completed in 1758. 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.