St. Michael's Church
A gleaming white Renaissance giant rising straight out of Munich's busy shopping street, its facade guarded by a bronze archangel spearing a demon. Inside soars the second-largest free-spanning barrel vault in the world, sheltering the royal crypt of the Wittelsbach dynasty.
About this place
Consecrated in 1597 after fourteen years of work, St. Michael's is the largest Renaissance church north of the Alps and was the spiritual flagship of the Catholic Counter-Reformation in Bavaria. Duke William V, nicknamed 'the Pious', handed it to the Jesuits and modelled it on their mother church, Il Gesu in Rome, yet Munich's version surpassed the original in scale. Its vast barrel vault spans more than twenty metres without a single supporting column, a feat second only to St Peter's Basilica. The monumental white facade, the first of its kind in the city, is lined with statues of Bavarian rulers and crowned by Hubert Gerhard's bronze Archangel Michael triumphing over evil. Beneath the church lies the Wittelsbach crypt, the final resting place of some forty members of the dynasty that ruled Bavaria for centuries, including the beloved 'fairytale king' Ludwig II.
Key facts
- 1597 year — The Jesuit church was consecrated after fourteen years of construction
- 20 metres — Width of the barrel vault, the largest free-spanning one after St Peter's in Rome
- 1886 year — King Ludwig II was laid to rest in the crypt below the church
📍 Neuhauser Straße 6, 80331, München