Nymphenburg [antikvár]

HistoryNymphenburg Palace, around a two-hour journey to the west of their residential capital, Munich, was the Bavarian rulers' favourite summer residence. This palace complex is of rather unusual design, with separate cube-shaped pavilions elegantly arranged around a central pavilion -which is also in the form of a cube. On the town side is a spacious cour d'honneur bordered by building tracts and a crescent (Rondell), and on the other side is an extensive park.The complex was not all created at once. The foundation stone was laid in 1664, but the planning, building and conversion continued well into the 19th century. Five rulers from the House of Wittelsbach contributed to the creation of Nymphenburg: the electors Ferdinand Maria, Max Emanuel, Karl Albrecht, Max III Joseph and Max IV Joseph, who became king in 1806 (see short biographies).The central building of Nymphenburg from the town sidePrevious double page: Aerial view of Nymphenburg Palace and Park from the town sideTHE FOUNDING OF NYMPHENBURGThe palace was begun by Elector Ferdinand Maria, (reigned 1651-1679), who presented his consort Henriette Adelaide of Savoy with Kemnath, a farm purchased on 1.7.1663 for 10,000 florins. The present marked the birth of the heir Max Emanuel a year before. A few days later the electress was already writing to her mother in Turin that she intended to have something built in "Kemmertin" (the court property [Hofmark] of Kemnath); she rejected the plans of the Turin architect Amadeus Castellamonte as too modest and eventually decided in favour of a design by Agostino Barelli of Bologna, who also started building the