Staatliche Antikensammlungen: Dionysus Sets Sail
Why is it significant?
Lean back against the warm stone of the Corinthian portico and look across the lawn of Königsplatz towards the Glyptothek, its twin and rival. People sprawl on the grass in summer, open-air concerts and films fill the square, and children run between the two temples. The lawn feels timeless.
Key Facts
| Place | Staatliche Antikensammlungen: Dionysus Sets Sail |
|---|---|
| Address | Königsplatz 1, 80333 München, Germany |
| Geo Coordinates | 48.14520, 11.56510 |
| Part of Walk | Isar-Athens: Munich's Königsplatz, the Pinakotheks & the Blue Rider |
| Generated | Generated |
Lean back against the warm stone of the Corinthian portico and look across the lawn of Königsplatz towards the Glyptothek, its twin and rival. People sprawl on the grass in summer, open-air concerts and films fill the square, and children run between the two temples. The lawn feels timeless. It is not.
This building was designed by Georg Friedrich Ziebland and completed in 1848, originally as an exhibition hall for art and industry. Only later did it become the home of the State Collections of Antiquities: Greek vases, Etruscan gold jewellery, bronzes and glass. Its vase collection is counted among the finest anywhere.
The star is a drinking cup no wider than a serving plate, painted around 530 before Christ by the Athenian master Exekias. On it, the god Dionysus reclines in a ship with a white sail, a grapevine sprouting from the mast, and dolphins leaping all around. The legend behind it says pirates kidnapped the god; he filled their ship with vines, and they jumped overboard and turned into dolphins. Wine and the sea, on the bottom of a wine cup... the Greeks had a sense of humour.
Now look at the square itself, soberly. In 1935 the Nazi regime covered this lawn with granite slabs and turned Königsplatz into a parade ground for mass rallies. At its eastern end stood two so-called temples of honour for the party members killed in the failed putsch of 1923. The American army blew them up in 1947. The stone slabs stayed until 1988, when the square was finally given back its grass.
So the green you see is a restoration, a decision to return the square to Ludwig's idea of museums and open space. Every summer evening picnic here is a small, quiet reply to those years. Now leave the square to the north-east along Arcisstraße, and look for a very long brick palace set in a wide lawn.