Marienplatz & The Glockenspiel: Heart of Bavaria

Why is it significant?

Stand right here on the paving stones of Marienplatz beside the gilded statue of the Virgin Mary perched high atop the marble Marian Column. Gaze up at the gargantuan neo-Gothic facade of the New Town Hall stretching along the northern side of the square.

Key Facts

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Stand right here on the paving stones of Marienplatz beside the gilded statue of the Virgin Mary perched high atop the marble Marian Column. Gaze up at the gargantuan neo-Gothic facade of the New Town Hall stretching along the northern side of the square. Built between eighteen sixty-seven and nineteen zero eight, its intricate limestone pinnacles, stone gargoyles, and stone statues of Bavarian dukes form the postcard image of Munich. Look up into the high tower at the two-tiered Glockenspiel. Every day at eleven in the morning and noon, forty-three bells and thirty-two life-sized mechanical figures burst into motion. The top level reenacts the lavish fifteen sixty-eight royal wedding tournament of Duke Wilhelm the Fifth, featuring a jousting match where the Bavarian knight always knocks the French knight off his horse. Below, barrel makers in bright red jackets perform the joyful Schäfflertanz, a dance created to coax frightened citizens back into the streets following a devastating sixteenth-century plague epidemic. In sixteen thirty-eight, during the brutal Thirty Years' War, Swedish troops occupied Munich. Elector Maximilian the First erected this gilded Mariensäule column in thanksgiving after the city was spared destruction. Turn west along the pedestrian cobbles toward the twin domed towers of the Frauenkirche.