Large palace of Munich – Nymphenburg

The Nymphenburg Palace is located a bit away from the center of Munich – back in the day it was probably outside the city – but today the city reach all the way out to the castle. It is actually an advantage since it ensures there is frequent public transport to and from the castle.

The original castle was started in 1664 and finished in 1675 – but later it was rebuilt and the size of the palace was increase several times. Finally in 1795 the palace was widened and the current width of the palace is actually bigger than the palace of Versailles making it one of the biggest royal palaces anywhere in the world.

The castle used to be used as the residence of the kings of Bavaria – but today the most part of the castle has been transformed into a museum. Though the former royal family of Bavaria – the House of Wittelsbach is still residing at the palace.

There is only access to part of the castle but the rooms you can go into is very impressive and richly decorated. There are also decent amounts of old furniture present in the room making the experience more interesting compared to the empty rooms you sometimes see at some palaces.

One of the famous galleries in the castle is the gallery of the beauties which are a collection of portraits of beautiful young women from different parts of the society. They were painted and put on the wall so the king had some pretty ladies to look at for his pleasure.

It is possible to combine a visit to the palace with a visit to the Marstallmuseum next door where you can see a large collection of royal coaches. In the summertime there is also a combined ticket which will allow you to go into the smaller buildings in the large park behind the castle. Unfortunately these buildings are not open in December when we visited the castle.