Where to Stay in Munich, Bavaria

What is Munich known for?

The Alte Pinakothek and the Neue Pinakothek hold the older painting, the Pinakothek der Moderne and the Museum Brandhorst the work that followed, and the Glyptothek and the Staatliche Antikensammlungen the antiquities. The Deutsches Museum turns to science and engineering instead. Beyond the galleries, Munich is the second city of the Bavarian dialect area after Vienna, and the seat of the Upper Bavarian administrative region.

What are the main landmarks in Munich?

Munich's landmarks are built, not natural. The Asam Church, the Bürgersaalkirche and the Heilig-Geist-Kirche carry the older church architecture, and the Angel of Peace is a monument rather than a museum. Haus der Kunst and the Lenbachhaus put art inside buildings that are part of the exhibit, and Villa Stuck does the same at the scale of a house.

The NS-Dokumentationszentrum and the Jewish Museum Munich hold the record of the twentieth century. The Bavarian National Museum keeps the state collection.

What is the history of Munich?

Munich was founded in 1158. The oldest surviving fabric of the city is religious: the Church of Saint Salvator, the Heilig-Geist-Kirche, the Bürgersaalkirche and the Asam Church were each raised for a congregation rather than a visitor, and each still stands in a working street. Pasing is older still.

Recorded in 763, it kept its own village life for four centuries before the city existed at all, and only later became part of the borough of Pasing-Obermenzing. Bavaria then made Munich a collecting capital, and the institutions carry the state's name: the Bavarian State Painting Collections, the Bavarian National Museum, the Glyptothek and the Staatliche Antikensammlungen. The Alte Pinakothek and the Neue Pinakothek came out of the same appetite for pictures.

The twentieth century left a harder record. Haus der Kunst, the NS-Dokumentationszentrum and the Jewish Museum Munich each hold part of it in a different register, while the Angel of Peace stands apart as a monument to peace. Not every neighbour joined.

Kirchheim bei München remains a municipality in the district of Munich, and Munich itself remains the seat of the Upper Bavarian administrative region.

Where is Munich?

Munich stands on the Isar. The city lies in the south of Germany with the Alps close behind it, and that one fact shapes both the weather arriving over it and the routes in and out. Bavaria has its capital here, and the Upper Bavarian administrative region its seat.

The metropolitan region reaches Augsburg and Ingolstadt.

What is the climate of Munich?

Temperate northern-hemisphere weather sets the baseline for Munich. The Alps stand a short way south, and that wall of mountains, rather than any sea, is what governs the air arriving over Bavaria. Four marked seasons follow.

Winter snow is ordinary here rather than an event, and the summers stay short of anything Mediterranean.

How do you get to Munich?

Munich lies in the south of Germany, north of the Alps. Every land approach therefore crosses Bavaria, and the mountain wall to the south means the open routes are the ones running north, east and west across the state. The Isar marks the middle.

Anyone travelling on east crosses the Bavarian dialect area toward Vienna.