Fürstenried Palace is a
Baroque
The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...
''
maison de plaisance
In Renaissance architecture, Renaissance and Early Modern German architecture, a ''Lustschloss'' (, both meaning "pleasure palace") is a country house, château, or palace which served the private pleasure of its owner, and was seasonally inh ...
'' and
hunting lodge in
Munich
Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...
,
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
. It was built from 1715 to 1717 for Elector
Maximilian II Emanuel. Today the palace serves as spiritual house for archdiocese and as pastoral center.
History
It was built by
Joseph Effner for Elector
Maximilian II Emanuel in 1715–17 as a hunting lodge and ''
maison de plaisance
In Renaissance architecture, Renaissance and Early Modern German architecture, a ''Lustschloss'' (, both meaning "pleasure palace") is a country house, château, or palace which served the private pleasure of its owner, and was seasonally inh ...
''. It was the extension and modification of an already existing noble mansion.
In 1726 a fire damaged the Fürstenried Palace. The following year, at the birth of the future
Maximilian III Joseph, Fürstenried went as puerperal gift to the Princess
Maria Amalia of Austria, the wife of the son of Maximilian Emanuel, Elector
Charles Albert. From 1777 to 1797 Fürstenried Palace was the residence of the former Electress
Maria Anna of Saxony, the widow of Maximilian III Joseph. In September 1796, Munich was surrounded by the French Republican Army that fought against the Austro-Imperial forces. Here, the Fuerstenried castle was plundered.
In 1798 the palace temporarily became an asylum for French
Tappistines,
With the introduction of compulsory schooling in Bavaria, King
Maximilian Joseph I. allowed to use an adjoining building of the castle as the first schoolhouse for the surrounding villages of Forstenried and Großhadern between 1805 and 1824.
During the German war in 1866 and the Franco-German war 1870/71 the castle was used as a military hospital. The palace served as domicile for the ill King
Otto of Bavaria from 1883 until his death in 1916. The King lived in an elegantly furnished apartment on the ground floor, while his servants lived on the first floor. After the First World War, the castle served as a military hospital again. Since 1925 the Catholic Retreat Hostel for
spiritual exercises has been housed in Fürstenried Palace. Only the surrounding wall friezes of the ''Blue Cabinet'' on the second floor of the main building have been preserved from the interiors.
During the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
the palace again served as military hospital.
War From 1946 to 1949 the castle was used as accommodation of the Theological Faculty of the Ludwig Maximilian University and the Georgianum.
Pope Benedict XVI
Pope BenedictXVI (born Joseph Alois Ratzinger; 16 April 1927 – 31 December 2022) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until his resignation on 28 February 2013. Benedict's election as p ...
, who was student of the faculty, has said that, prior to his ordination as a deacon in the fall of 1950, he pondered his vocation to the priesthood "as I walked in the beautiful park of Fürstenried ... ."
From 1972 to 1976 the palace was modernized. Since 2013
Jesuit
The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
Padre Christoph Kentrup leads the palace.
Construction
The palace has a manorial driveway, which links Fürstenried Palace and
Nymphenburg Palace. The palace is a three-storey main building and has two lateral smaller pavilions as well as several adjoining buildings around a court of honor.
The park
Already in the 18th century high-quality vegetables and dessert fruit was produced in the fruit and vegetable garden of the palace. The court gardener excelled in the arts, in addition to the everyday to also use rare fruit and vegetables such as asparagus, artichokes, quinces and peaches. The then-popular beans and peas were grown in cold frames almost all year round.
This tradition was resumed in King Otto's time. The
Baroque garden behind the castle was then reconstructed by
Carl von Effner, according to the plans of his ancestor Joseph Effner. Carl von Effner's great merit is to preserve the 110 lime trees in the park and many more along the two double-row alleys flanking the line of sight towards Munich. In the 20th century the palace was famous for its foreign plants.
See also
*
List of Baroque residences
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Furstenried Palace
Houses completed in 1715
Royal residences in Bavaria
Palaces in Bavaria
Buildings and structures in Munich
Hostels
Baroque architecture in Munich
1715 establishments in the Holy Roman Empire
Tourist accommodations in Germany