Splendid Streets: Maxvorstadt Munich

Munich was founded near a monastery and named after these monks (apud Munichen). The city is first mention in 1158 when Henry the Lion Duke of Saxony and Bavaria grants the right to hold a market near the Isarbridge on the Salzstrasse (Salt Street) between Salzburg and Augsburg. Later the city was fortified and subsequently enlarged and again fortified. At the end of the 18th century the defences were decommissioned and torn town. This made it possible to expand the old city.

The Maxvorstadt comprises of a grid type urban extension that was to double the urban area of Munich. The scheme took several decades to complete. In the meantime several other suburbs (the literal translations of Vorstadt) were developed: Ludwigsvorstadt, Isarvorstadt, Schwanthalerhöhe and Haidhausen on the other side of the Isar.

The Maxvorstadt was planned between 1805 and 1810 on the instigation of the first Bavarian King Maximilian I Joseph, after whom the area was named. It was projected over a large flat area northwest of the old city between the old routes to the Marsfeld (a Military exercise ground), Nymphenburg Palace, Dachau, Schleissheim Palace and Freising. These old routes were formalised as straight streets within a grid layout.  The aim was to create a formal expansion that would serve as a beautiful addition to the medieval Altstadt.   

The old fortified city was surrounded by a wide moat that was fed by several brooks. The Mushroom shape is very distinct and came to be after the second large expansion of the city in the fourteenth century which was mostly located on the higher ground behind the older city.

The Briener Strasse would serve as the central axis of the new suburb connecting the road to Dachau and Schleissheim with a rotunda to the new entrance gate (1812) to the Hofgarten (Palace Gardens) behind the Münchener Residenz (Residential Palace). Along this route several formal ensembles were erected around several squares. The Königsplatz (Kings Square) on this axis was created as the centre of a new cultural hub, not unlike Albertopolis in London, the Kaiserforum in Vienna, the Forum Fredericianum in Berlin and the Royal Forum in Brussels. The queer axis starts at the Kaffeehaus in the Alter Botanischer Garten (1814) and ends at the gates of the Alter Nördlicher Friedhof (1866). The Maxvorstadt connects to the old city via a wide boulevard (Sonnenstrasse - 1812) and the Maximiliansplatz (1808), a long garden square that is part of this green boulevard. The boulevard stretches from the Sendlinger Tor, where a large square was created on the site of a former bulwark, to the Briener Strasse. A secondary axis links this garden square with the main axis of the Maxvorstadt at the Obelisk (1833).

Although the main focus was on the Maxvorstadt In the Southwest a second axial ensemble was created between the Sendlinger Tor (a former city gate) and a new general hospital (Algemeinen Krankenhaus - 1813) across a formal park. A third ensemble was created north of the city to separate the Maxvorstadt from the Englischer Garten. and tie the residential palace into the new scheme. It consists of a long axis, a so-called Prachtstrasse (literally: Splendid Street), that starts by the palace at the Feldherrnhalle (1844) next to the Palais Prysing (1728) and runs at a slightly different angle than the grid of the Maxvorstadt. Across from the Hofgarten a second ensemble was created consisting of the Odeonsplatz. The axis ended at the Siegestor (1852) a triumphal arch modelled after Marble arch. Before this the street widens to a square with the university buildings around it. Next to the Siegestor on a queer axis the Akademie der Bildende Künste (Academie of Fine Arts - 1808) was built.

Three axial ensembles connect to the quarter belt road (A) that links up to the Old Botanical Gardens (B) and the Maxplatz (C). The starting point is the Sendlinger Tor (1) from where an axis leads to the General Hospital (2). The culmination of the scheme is the Residenz with the Hofgarten (D).At the Hofgartentor (1) starts the central axis of the Maxvorstadt (in red). Next to this "Splendid Street" lies the Wittelsbacherplatz (2) with an Equestrian statue and flanked by the Odeon (1828), the Palais Ludwig-Ferdinand (1826) and the Palais Arco-Zinneberg (1820). The axis proceeds to meet the Obelisk (3) and beyond to the Königsplatz with the Glyptothek (4 - 1833), the Antikensammlungen (5 - 1848) and the Propylaea (6 - 1862), to end at a rotunda (7) on the Dachauerstrasse. The queer axis starts at the Kaffehaus (8), runs along the Königsplatz to the Alte Pinakothek (9 - 1836) and Neue Pinakothek (1853) to end at the gatehouses of the Northern Cemetery (10 - 1866) and served effectively as the backbone to the development of the Kunstareal. The third axis (in orange) was also meant as a "Splendid Street" lined with official and representative buildings. The axis of the Ludwigstrasse starts at the Feldherrnhalle (1) along the Odeonsplatz (2) with the Odeon, the Palais Ludwig-Ferdinand and the Palais Leuchtenberg (1821). The Hofgartengalerie (3 - 1853) stands opposite. The street was lined with ministerial building and civic buildings like the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (Bavarian State-Library) completed in 1839 (6). The splendid street crosses the Ludwigsforum (4) with on its westside the main building of the Ludwig-Maximilian University (1835) and on the westside the Georgianum (1840) and the Veterinary Institute (1840s) to end at the Siegestor (5). Next to this triumphal arch stand the Academy of fine Arts (7).