Munich 3, Frauenkirche

Due to the short day, we chose only one other church, and it was the big one, Munich's Frauenkirche. It's the seat of the Archbishop of Munich and Freising, the church where Cardinal Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) served before his election.

A few interesting things about the church: built in the 1400s rather quickly for a cathedral of this size (approximately twenty years). The towers, with the Bavarian Renaissance onion domes were added later. Mostly destroyed in the end of World War II, it was finally fully reconstructed in 1994. Plain on the outside, with the buttress structure on the inside, the church is less impressive than other Gothic structures.

Inside is the huge monument tomb of Ludwig the Bavarian (1282-1347) who was at various times of his life Duke of Bavaria, King of the Germans, King of Italy and Holy Roman Empire as Ludwig IV. Along with the usual king and HRE things (fighting with the Church, the French, the Italians, etc) he also abolished the serfdom of the peasants, and expanded the rights and privileges of towns, very important for economic and intellectual development.

Also in the church: the Devil's Footprint. There are a few legends around this somewhat disappointing site. The most agreed upon: the Devil made a deal with the master builder-- he would see that the church was completed quickly, but there could be no windows, or the builder would lose his soul. When it was complete (remember that short twenty years), the Devil came to look, saw no windows, deal complete. However, he soon learned he had been tricked, because the windows in the nave were behind the interior columns. Too late to do anything about it as the church had been consecrated, or to reap his soul, he stamped his foot in anger, turned into a whirlwind, and tried to blow the church down. No luck. It's still there, but so is his footprint out in the foyer.

We didn't go up the tower (next time) because someone (not me) didn't want to pay for it. Overall, big church, impressive, but it didn't wow me. Too much modern glass. Understandably, it had been destroyed at the end of the war, and often times in the rebuilding, decisions were made to go in a different direction.Read more