Today we talk about Munich and we start from Marienplatz, one of the most important squares of the city.
Here are some of the city’s main buildings, such as the old town hall and the new town hall. Almost all the lines of the S-Bahn and U-Bhan pass from here and, therefore, you can get anywhere in the city by public transport (buses and trams do not move directly onto the square because it is a pedestrian zone). However, even on foot, you can quickly arrive in many of the iconic sights of Munich.
Overlooking Marienplatz is the new Munich City Hall. The view from the town hall tower (2 euros the ticket) is just spectacular and sweeps across the city. I advise you not to miss the dancing clock show of the new city hall for anything in the world: it plays three times a day (11:00, 12:00 and, from March to October, even at 5:00 pm). It consists of two floors: the upper level “stages” the celebrations for the wedding of Duke William V with Princess Renate von Lothringen (1568). The lower “deck” recalls the ancient dance of the coopers that symbolises the return of Monaco to the usual normality and at parties after the end of the plague that involved it from 1515 to 1517. Behind Marienplatz is Viscardigasse, a small side street of Residenzstrasse (the “way of resistance”).
This small street is also called “the street of the ambushes” and is a nickname that refers to a historical fact of the Nazi period. On 8 November 1923 in Munich, there was a coup attempt (the Putsch of Monaco) among whose organisers there was also Adolf Hitler.
In memory of this coup, Hitler wanted to put on the Feldherrnhalle a commemorative plaque in memory of the fallen (plate plotted by a picket of the SS), and passers-by were obliged to make the Nazi salute when they passed by. Those who did not want to make the greeting stretched his lap through this small street behind the Loggia, which led into the same square on the side opposite the memorial. On the Internet, while I was looking for more information, I discovered that this street is also called Drückebergergasse, the slacker alley. There are no plaques to signal the historical importance of this small street in the center of Monaco, but only a long line of brass sampietrini that runs in (almost all) its length: probably due to this lack of plaques and indications clearly visible, my friend and I have struggled to find her during our exploration of the city! (It helped us in our intent to have noticed the different guided groups that had stopped right here: only at that point we noticed the sampietrini and we reconnected the
alley to the story). The last stop on this tour for Monaco is Karltor. I had found this door marked as “to be seen” because of the “crazy heads”. These are the depictions of 4 strange characters in the history of Monaco: Georg Orangerl (1745-1820), musician and court buffoon; Joseph Huber (1763-1829), considered a master in delivering love letters (hence his nickname “Finessensepperl”); Baron Josef Sulzbeck (1776-1845) famous as a double bass player in the Hofbräuhaus, the court brewery); Franz Xaver Krenkl (1780-1860) 14 times champion at the Oktoberfest horse races that one day cut the way to the king’s carriage and shouted, without any fear “who can can” (“wer ko, der ko …” in German ). The door connects Karlsplatz and the pedestrian zone of the Neuhauser Straße.
These are four things, in my opinion, you shouldn’t miss in the Munich city centre.