Munich Residenz - The Court Garden

The Court Garden

The Court Garden (Hofgarten) at the northern side opposite to the Festsaalbau was laid out under Maximilian I. In the middle of the park in French style a circular temple (1615) is crowned by a statue of Bavaria (1594 by Hubert Gerhard). The western Hofgarten arcades with the gate were done by Klenze, the northern wing with the former electoral gallery houses a theatre museum. The remnansts o some renaissance arcades in the north east of the park were integrated to the Bavarian State Chancellery in 1992. (The people of Munich love to denounce it as Straussoleum, after a former state prime minister 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 supposedly would have destroyed the overall impression of the court gardens. Its middle section with the now reconstructed dome is the only remnant of the former Bavarian Army Museum, constructed already in 1900-1905 and almost completely destroyed during the bomb raids of World War II. That museum is nowadays located in the Neues Schloss in the city of Ingolstadt, 80 km north of Munich.