On the Max Joseph Platz, which has a bronze statue of King Max, a seated figure, and some elaborate bas-reliefs, is another front of the palace, the Konigsbau, an imitation, not fully carried out, of the Pitti Palace, at Florence.Between these is the old Residenz, adorned with fountain groups and statues in bronze.On another side are the church and theater of the Residenz.The interior of this court chapel is dazzling in appearance: the pillars are, I think, imitation of variegated marble; the sides are imitation of the same;the vaulting is covered with rich frescoes on gold ground.The whole effect is rich, but it is not at all sacred.Indeed, there is no church in Munich, except the old cathedral, the Frauenkirche, with its high Gothic arches, stained windows, and dusty old carvings, that gives one at all the sort of feeling that it is supposed a church should give.The court chapel interior is boastingly said to resemble St.Mark's, in Venice.
You see how far imitation of the classic and Italian is carried here in Munich; so, as I said, the buildings need the southern sunlight.
Fortunately, they get the right quality much of the time.The Glyptothek, a Grecian structure of one story, erected to hold the treasures of classic sculpture that King Ludwig collected, has a beautiful Ionic porch and pediment.On the outside are niches filled with statues.In the pure sunshine and under a deep blue sky, its white marble glows with an almost ethereal beauty.Opposite stands another successful imitation of the Grecian style of architecture,--a building with a Corinthian porch, also of white marble.These, with the Propylaeum, before mentioned, come out wonderfully against a blue sky.A few squares distant is the Pinakothek, with its treasures of old pictures, and beyond it the New Pinakothek, containing works of modern artists.Its exterior is decorated with frescoes, from designs by Kaulbach: these certainly appear best in a sparkling light; though I am bound to say that no light can make very much of them.
Yet Munich is not all imitation.Its finest street, the Maximilian, built by the late king of that name, is of a novel and wholly modern style of architecture, not an imitation, though it may remind some of the new portions of Paris.It runs for three quarters of a mile, beginning with the postoffice and its colonnades, with frescoes on one side, and the Hof Theater, with its pediment frescoes, the largest opera-house in Germany, I believe; with stately buildings adorned with statues, and elegant shops, down to the swift-flowing Isar, which is spanned by a handsome bridge; or rather by two bridges, for the Isar is partly turned from its bed above, and made to turn wheels, and drive machinery.At the lower end the street expands into a handsome platz, with young shade trees, plats of grass, and gay beds of flowers.I look out on it as I write; and Isee across the Isar the college building begun by Maximilian for the education of government officers; and I see that it is still unfinished, indeed, a staring mass of brick, with unsightly scaffolding and gaping windows.Money was left to complete it; but the young king, who does not care for architecture, keeps only a mason or two on the brick-work, and an artist on the exterior frescoes.At this rate, the Cologne Cathedral will be finished and decay before this is built.On either side of it, on the elevated bank of the river, stretch beautiful grounds, with green lawns, fine trees, and well-kept walks.
Not to mention the English Garden, in speaking of the outside aspects of the city, would be a great oversight.It was laid out originally by the munificent American, Count Rumford, and is called English, Isuppose, because it is not in the artificial Continental style.
Paris has nothing to compare with it for natural beauty,--Paris, which cannot let a tree grow, but must clip it down to suit French taste.It is a noble park four miles in length, and perhaps a quarter of that in width,--a park of splendid old trees, grand, sweeping avenues, open glades of free-growing grass, with delicious, shady walks, charming drives and rivers of water.For the Isar is trained to flow through it in two rapid streams, under bridges and over rapids, and by willow-hung banks.There is not wanting even a lake; and there is, I am sorry to say, a temple on a mound, quite in the classic style, from which one can see the sun set behind the many spires of Munich.At the Chinese Tower two military bands play every Saturday evening in the summer; and thither the carriages drive, and the promenaders assemble there, between five and six o'clock; and while the bands play, the Germans drink beer, and smoke cigars, and the fashionably attired young men walk round and round the, circle, and the smart young soldiers exhibit their handsome uniforms, and stride about with clanking swords.
We felicitated ourselves that we should have no lack of music when we came to Munich.I think we have not; though the opera has only just begun, and it is the vacation of the Conservatoire.There are first the military bands: there is continually a parade somewhere, and the streets are full of military music, and finely executed too.Then of beer-gardens there is literally no end, and there are nightly concerts in them.There are two brothers Hunn, each with his band, who, like the ancient Huns, have taken the city; and its gardens are given over to their unending waltzes, polkas, and opera medleys.
Then there is the church music on Sundays and holidays, which is largely of a military character; at least, has the aid of drums and trumpets, and the whole band of brass.For the first few days of our stay here we had rooms near the Maximilian Platz and the Karl's Thor.