Munich tourist attractions

Munich has centred on Marienplatz since its founding around 1158, when the main market grew up at this crossing of trade routes. The Neues Rathaus fills the north side, its tower carrying the Glockenspiel whose figures act out a ducal wedding and a coopers' dance to a run of bells. The golden Madonna on the Mariensäule has watched the square since 1638, and the cafes, spires and shopping streets around it make this the natural start of any walk through the old town.

Location: Marienplatz, Altstadt, at the heart of the old town.

Access: Free. The Glockenspiel plays daily at 11:00 and 12:00, with an extra show at 17:00 from March to October.

The Frauenkirche is Munich's cathedral and the defining shape of its skyline, two bare brick towers capped by green copper domes known as Welsche Hauben. The late Gothic hall church was raised in the late 15th century and consecrated in 1494, its whitewashed interior kept plain after wartime rebuilding. A dark mark near the entrance, the Devil's Footstep, ties the church to a legend about a bargain struck with its builder. It remains the seat of the Archbishop of Munich and Freising.

Style: Late Gothic

Location: Frauenplatz, Altstadt.

Access: Free to enter the nave. Climbing the south tower is ticketed.

Known to locals as Alter Peter, or Old Peter, St. Peter's is the oldest parish church in Munich, its history on the Petersbergl reaching back to the 12th century. Inside, a Gothic frame gathers a gilded high altar and centuries of chapels and monuments. The real draw is the tower: a climb of around 300 steps reaches a narrow gallery that looks straight across Marienplatz to the Frauenkirche and, on clear days, to the Alps on the horizon.

Style: Gothic with a Baroque interior

Location: Rindermarkt, Altstadt, beside Marienplatz.

Access: The church is free to enter. The tower climb is ticketed.

A few steps from Marienplatz, the Viktualienmarkt has traded as Munich's daily food market since 1807, when it outgrew its first home on the main square. Its stalls sell produce, cheese, flowers, spices and Bavarian specialities beneath a painted maypole, and a beer garden at the centre rotates its pour between the city's big breweries through the year. Mornings are busiest, and the market rests on Sundays and public holidays while the surrounding lanes stay open.

Location: Viktualienmarkt, Altstadt.

Access: Free to wander. Only what goes in the bag or onto the table is paid for.

The Asamkirche hides behind a narrow front on Sendlinger Strasse and opens into one of the most concentrated Rococo interiors in Bavaria. The brothers Cosmas Damian and Egid Quirin Asam built it from 1733 as their private chapel, paying for it themselves, which let them cover almost every surface in gilding, fresco and twisting marble. Public pressure later opened the church to the city, and it still holds services beneath its crowded ceiling.

Architect: Cosmas Damian and Egid Quirin Asam · Style: Late Baroque and Rococo

Location: Sendlinger Strasse, Altstadt.

Access: Free to enter.

The Residenz served the Wittelsbach dukes, electors and kings as their city palace for more than four centuries, growing from the Neuveste castle of 1385 into a sprawling run of courtyards and state rooms. It is now a museum, and the shell-encrusted Grottenhof, the barrel-vaulted Antiquarium and a treasury of crowns and reliquaries rank among its highlights. The formal Hofgarten alongside stays open at no charge between palace visits.

Style: Renaissance to Rococo

Location: Residenzstrasse, Altstadt.

Access: Ticketed. The adjoining Hofgarten is free.

Laid out from 1789 on the idea of Benjamin Thompson, later Count Rumford, and shaped by Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell, the Englischer Garten runs north from the old town along the Isar and ranks among the largest urban parks in the world, stretching some five and a half kilometres. Its lawns, beer gardens and the wooden Chinese Tower fill up all summer, while the Greek-style Monopteros temple crowns a low rise. At the southern edge, surfers ride the standing wave of the Eisbach, a fixture of the park since the 1970s.

Location: North of the old town, along the Isar.

Access: Free and open at all hours. Surfing on the Eisbach has been allowed again since 8 May 2026, for experienced surfers only.

Nymphenburg began in 1664 as a summer villa for the Electress Henriette Adelaide and grew over the next century into a broad Baroque palace fronted by a canal and formal gardens. Inside, the Stone Hall runs the full height of the central block under ceiling frescoes, and the Gallery of Beauties holds portraits commissioned by King Ludwig I. The park behind spreads into woodland dotted with smaller pavilions, among them the Amalienburg hunting lodge.

Style: Baroque

Location: Schloss Nymphenburg, Neuhausen-Nymphenburg, west of the centre.

Access: Ticketed. The surrounding park is free.

On an island in the Isar, the Deutsches Museum is one of the world's largest museums of science and technology, holding some 125,000 objects across around fifty subject areas, from mining and aviation to chemistry and timekeeping. Roughly 25,000 are on display at any time, many of them full-size machines, from Rudolf Diesel's first engine of 1897 to aircraft and spacecraft. The other half of the building, with the mine and the ships, stays closed for modernisation until around 2028.

Location: Museumsinsel, on an island in the Isar.

Access: Ticketed.

The BMW Museum traces the marque's history of cars, motorcycles and engines inside a silver bowl-shaped building at the foot of the company's four-cylinder tower. Its ramps wind past racing machines, prototypes and design studies arranged by theme. Next door, the free BMW Welt showroom displays the newest models under a swooping double-cone roof, and the two sit beside the Olympiapark north of the city centre.

Location: Am Olympiapark, Milbertshofen, north of the centre.

Access: Ticketed. The neighbouring BMW Welt showroom is free.

The Hofbräuhaus on the Platzl is Munich's best-known beer hall, the tap house of the brewery Duke Wilhelm V founded in 1589 to supply his court. The present neo-Renaissance building went up in 1896 and 1897, after brewing moved out to Haidhausen, and its vaulted ground-floor hall, the Schwemme, fills with long shared tables, a brass band and one-litre mugs. The brewery still belongs to the Free State of Bavaria, and a beer garden opens in the courtyard.

Location: Platzl, Altstadt, a few minutes' walk from Marienplatz.

Access: Free to enter, with food and drink ordered at the table.

The Alte Pinakothek is one of the oldest public picture galleries in the world, built for King Ludwig I by Leo von Klenze and opened in 1836 in what is now the Kunstareal museum quarter. Its European paintings run from the late Middle Ages to the Rococo, with Albrecht Dürer's self-portrait of 1500, one of the largest Rubens collections anywhere and works by Leonardo, Raphael, Titian and Rembrandt. The bare brick patches on the facade are Hans Döllgast's post-war repairs, left visible where bombs struck the building.

Architect: Leo von Klenze

Location: Barer Strasse 27, Maxvorstadt, in the Kunstareal, with the entrance on Theresienstrasse.

Access: Ticketed. While the Neue Pinakothek is closed for refurbishment, a selection of its 19th-century paintings hangs on the ground floor.

The Olympiapark was laid out on the former Oberwiesenfeld airfield for the 1972 Summer Olympics. Its signature is the translucent tent roof of steel cable net and acrylic panels, designed by Günter Behnisch's practice with Frei Otto, that sweeps over the stadium, the arena and the swimming hall. The Olympiaberg beside the lake was piled up from wartime rubble, and the 291-metre Olympiaturm rises over the park, the whole tower closed for renovation since June 2024 and due to reopen in late 2027.

Location: Spiridon-Louis-Ring, Milbertshofen-Am Hart, north of the centre.

Access: Free to walk the park. The stadium roof tours and the venues are ticketed.