The Maximilianeum, a palatial building in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

, was built as the home of a gifted students' foundation but since 1949 has housed the Bavarian State Parliament. It sits grandly and as a focal point on the bank of the

Isar River The Isar is a river in Tyrol, Austria, and Bavaria, Germany, which is not navigable for watercraft above raft size. Its source is in the Karwendel range of the Alps in Tyrol; it enters Germany near Mittenwald and flows through Bad Tölz, Munic ...

above Maximilian Bridge at the eastern end of Maximilianstrasse, a royal avenue dotted with

Neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

palaces influenced by the English

Perpendicular In elementary geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at a right angle (90 degrees or π/2 radians). The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the ''perpendicular symbol'', ⟂. It ca ...

style. Construction was the initiative of King

Maximilian II of Bavaria Maximilian II (28 November 1811 – 10 March 1864) reigned as King of Bavaria between 1848 and 1864. Unlike his father, King Ludwig I, "King Max" was very popular and took a greater interest in the business of Government than in personal extr ...

in 1857, with Friedrich Bürklein the lead architect. Weight problems delayed completion until 1874, and the façade, which had been conceived as Neo-Gothic, needed to be altered; Gottfried Semper was entrusted with the adjustments, resulting in the final quasi-

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...

appearance decorated with arches, columns, mosaics, and niches filled with busts. The much less visible rear of the edifice has been extended in motley fashion to provide new parliamentary office space, in 1958, 1964, 1992, and again in 2012, each time with a different architectural approach.

External links

Maximilianeum Panorama
Commercial buildings completed in 1874 Maximilianeum Buildings and structures in Munich Historicist architecture in Munich German Landtag buildings Culture in Munich Registered historic buildings and monuments in Bavaria 1874 establishments in Bavaria {{Bavaria-struct-stub