Aerial image of the Chiemsee municipality

Herreninsel (; old name: Herrenwörth) is a 238 hectare island in

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total l ...

's largest lake,

Chiemsee Chiemsee () is a freshwater lake in Bavaria, Germany, near Rosenheim. It is often called "the Bavarian Sea". The rivers Tiroler Achen and Prien flow into the lake from the south, and the river Alz flows out towards the north. The Alz flows i ...

. It is the biggest of three main islands, Fraueninsel and "Krautinsel" joining it to form the municipality of Chiemsee. Herreninsel is famous for the Herrenchiemsee palace of

Ludwig II of Bavaria Ludwig II (Ludwig Otto Friedrich Wilhelm; 25 August 1845 – 13 June 1886) was King of Bavaria from 1864 until his death in 1886. He is sometimes called the Swan King or ('the Fairy Tale King'). He also held the titles of Count Palatine of the ...

. Never completed, it was only inhabited by the king for nine or ten nights before he mysteriously died of drowning at age 40. The island is inhabited by about 30 people, Frauenchiemsee some 300. It is also the site of a previous royal home, the Old Palace Herrenchiemsee, a former Augustinian

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer whic ...

(Monastery Herrenchiemsee).

External links

Bavarian Palace Department

Lake islands of Germany Islands of Bavaria Rosenheim (district) {{Rosenheimdistrict-geo-stub