Beer halls, the Alps on the horizon, and Oktoberfest as a global pilgrimage — Bavaria's capital is where you drink from a 1L stein in the Englischer Garten at noon, and the world's largest folk festival turns the Theresienwiese into a temporary city
Munich is the capital of Bavaria and Germany's third-largest city (1.5 million), at 520m on the Isar River 80km from the Austrian Alps. The Marienplatz — the historic central square with its neo-Gothic Neues Rathaus (1874–1909) and Glockenspiel (performs at 11am, noon, 5pm) — is the beating heart of the pedestrian old town. Six Munich breweries (Augustiner, Hacker-Pschorr, Hofbräu, Löwenbräu, Paulaner, Spaten) hold exclusive rights to serve at Oktoberfest, held on the Theresienwiese from late September to early October and drawing 6–7 million visitors annually. The Englischer Garten (1789, 3.…
München ('home of monks') was founded in 1158 by Henry the Lion, Duke of Bavaria, near a bridge over the Isar controlled by Benedictine monks from Tegernsee. The Wittelsbach dynasty ruled Bavaria from 1180 to 1918, building the Residenz palace complex (expanded over 400 years to 130 rooms open to the public) and accumulating one of Europe's great art collections — the Alte Pinakothek (1836) holds Dürer, Rubens, and Raphael masterpieces. Adolf Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch on 8–9 November 1923 failed; he was imprisoned at Landsberg, where Mein Kampf was written. The 1972 Munich Olympics — where Pa…