Munich is a vibrant and historic city with many cultural experiences and sights. Munich is conveniently located in the southern part of Germany, just a few hours’ train ride from Austria, Czechia and Switzerland. So if you’re travelling through the country, why not stop in this darling city for a 24-hour mini break to explore all it has to offer. Munich has everything from beer halls to the ancient church and gorgeous architecture. But as such a compact city, you can easily see much of this place in just 24 hours! Join us as we take you on a tour of Munich’s best attractions, food, and culture.
Munich is the capital of Bavaria. Its name comes from the Old High German Munichen, “by the monks,” a nod to the Benedictine settlement beside the Isar where Duke Henry the Lion built a toll bridge in 1158, the year the city first appears in the record. The medieval roots still show in the cobblestones and Gothic gables, even though much of the centre was rebuilt after the Second World War.
| Stop | Hours |
|---|---|
| Asam Church | Daily 9 am–7 pm through October, 6 pm from November; Fridays from 1 pm. Closed to visitors during services. |
| Viktualienmarkt | Monday to Saturday, generally 8 am–8 pm. Closed Sundays; some stalls closed Mondays. |
| Alter Peter tower | Hours vary by season. Closed on Good Friday, Shrove Tuesday and 1 January. About 300 steps, no lift. |
| Glockenspiel | 11 am and noon daily; also 5 pm from March to October. |
| Neues Rathaus tower | Daily 10 am–8 pm, last lift 7:40 pm, in 20-minute time slots. Closed 1 November, 1 and 6 January, Shrove Tuesday, 1 May and 25–26 December. |
| Frauenkirche | Church daily 8 am–8 pm, except during services. South tower Monday to Saturday 10 am–5 pm, Sundays and holidays 11:30 am–5 pm, last ascent 4:30 pm. |
| Hofbräuhaus | Daily from 11 am. |
| Residenz | Daily 10 am–5 pm, last entry 4 pm, from 26 October. Closed 1 January, Shrove Tuesday and 24, 25 and 31 December. |
| Hofgarten | Open all year. |
| Augustiner-Keller | Restaurant daily 10 am–1 am. Beer garden April to October only, weather permitting. |
Begin at the Sendlinger Tor, the gate that marks the southern edge of the old town. It was first mentioned in 1318 as the starting point of the road to Italy. The flanking towers you see today date to the 15th century; the central tower was pulled down in 1808, and in 1906 the small side arches became one wide opening for traffic. It is one of only three medieval city gates still standing in Munich.
Once through, take a moment to study the buildings around you. Pale yellows, pinks, bright orange and teal climb the facades along Sendlinger Straße, a rainbow of colour to lead you north into the pedestrian zone.
A few minutes up Sendlinger Straße, a facade barely eight metres wide marks the Asam Church, officially St. Johann Nepomuk. Step inside and one of Munich’s most beautiful Baroque interiors opens around you. It feels like a gilded jewellery box: dark and narrow at floor level, brighter as your eye climbs to the ceiling frescoes and the stucco cherubs along the walls. Your neck may get sore.
The brothers Egid Quirin Asam, a sculptor, and Cosmas Damian Asam, a painter, built it between 1733 and 1746 as a private church beside their own home. With no client to answer to, they could design freely, which is why it still looks like nothing else in the city. They even built it facing west instead of east. Allow 15 to 30 minutes.
From the Asam Church it’s a short walk toward Marienplatz to the Viktualienmarkt, the best place in the old town to pick up breakfast. Roughly 100 stalls sell baked goods, flowers, spices, fresh produce, cheese and German sausages. The market has stood here since 1807, when King Maximilian I Joseph moved it off Marienplatz, which had grown too crowded.
My favourite way to eat here is a small picnic: freshly baked buns, sausage, a few slices of cheese, a basket of local fruit and a hot coffee from whichever stall has a line of locals around it. Then find a spot and watch the other shoppers go by. The beer garden in the middle of the market lets you bring your own food, as long as you buy your drinks there.
On the way toward Marienplatz, stop at St. Peter’s Church. It is Munich’s oldest parish church, with roots in the 12th century, and the city has rebuilt it several times since. The Baroque high altar holds a golden statue of St. Peter, and a side chapel displays the jewelled relics of St. Munditia in a glass coffin.
The real draw is the tower, known to locals as the Alter Peter (Old Peter). An old staircase of about 300 steps takes you up to a viewing platform 56 metres above the street. It is a long climb, narrow and dimly lit, a little eerie, and in the tightest stretches you’ll stop to let people pass. Skip it if you’re claustrophobic. At the top you get the Frauenkirche’s twin towers, the rooftops of the old town and, on a clear day, the Alps. If you only have 24 hours, it’s the view that makes the rest of the route make sense.
Across from St. Peter’s, on the east side of Marienplatz, stands the Old Town Hall. Munich has two town halls on its main square, and this is the older one. Work began on its late Gothic redesign in 1470 under Jörg von Halsbach, the master builder who also raised the Frauenkirche. Renovations in later centuries blended Renaissance and Baroque touches into the facade, and the city council met here until 1874. The tower grew out of the medieval city fortifications.
Today the building houses the Toy Museum, which fills four floors of the tower with the history of children’s rooms and playthings.
Much of Munich was rebuilt after the bombing of the Second World War, yet the city still feels medieval, and nowhere more than here. Marienplatz has been the centre of Munich for centuries and still is.
Aim to be in the square for the Glockenspiel, which plays at 11 am and noon every day, with an extra show at 5 pm from March to October. It replays two scenes from the city’s past: the knights’ tournament held on this square in 1568 for the wedding of Duke Wilhelm V, and the coopers’ dance that is said to have lifted the city’s spirits after a plague. Arrive about ten minutes early or you’ll be standing behind the third row.
The New Town Hall is younger than it looks. This Gothic Revival landmark was built in three stages between 1867 and 1905 by Georg von Hauberrisser. Along its 98.5-metre facade, Henry the Lion, who founded the city, and nearly the full line of the Wittelsbach family look down from their niches. It is the largest cycle of princely statues on any town hall in Germany, rulers of the past still watching the square.
For the view without the stairs, two lifts carry you up the 85-metre tower to a viewing platform, with the Frauenkirche, the Alter Peter and the Theatinerkirche at your feet. If you’d rather rest your legs, the terraces around the square charge tourist prices, so you are paying for the people-watching.
If, like me, you’re an ecclesiastical architecture buff, walk the few minutes from Marienplatz to the Frauenkirche. This late Gothic brick hall church was built between 1468 and 1488, and its two towers, each just under 99 metres, are crowned with copper onion domes added around 1525. After a 2004 referendum, new buildings in the city are capped at the height of the towers, so the towers still rule the skyline.
Inside, the furnishings are restrained and the space does the work. Slender white pillars and star-shaped rib vaults make a clean, geometric room that makes its impact without bright colours or elaborate ornament. Look for the Devil’s Footprint in the entrance hall, the spot from which the pillars hide every window; the black marble cenotaph of Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian; and a 16th-century automaton clock. The south tower has a glass-enclosed viewing platform reached by about 90 steps and a lift.
A short walk east of Marienplatz, on the Platzl, stands the Hofbräuhaus, the most famous beer hall in Munich and the right place to stop for lunch. Duke Wilhelm V founded it in 1589 as a ducal brewery so he wouldn’t have to import his beer. It has stood on this site since 1607 and opened to the public in 1828. The building you see dates to 1897, and the vaulted ground-floor Schwemme, with room for about 1,000 at long shared tables, is the room that survived the air raids of 1945. Bands play there daily. Expect noise, enormous steins and a crowd from everywhere.
From the Hofbräuhaus it’s a few minutes to the Residenz, Germany’s largest city-centre palace. It began in 1385 as a small moated castle and grew over more than 600 years into a complex built around ten courtyards. The Wittelsbach dukes, electors and kings governed and lived here until 1918. Today it is a museum, and its rooms run from Renaissance through Baroque and Rococo to Neoclassical. Don’t miss the Antiquarium, the largest Renaissance hall north of the Alps, or the Cuvilliés Theatre, one of Europe’s great Rococo interiors.
It’s a lot for one afternoon. If you’re short on time, pick the Residenz Museum or the Treasury rather than rushing both.
Just north of the Residenz is the Hofgarten, laid out between 1613 and 1617 by Maximilian I in the style of an Italian Renaissance garden. Follow any of the arched paths to the centre, where the Diana Temple pavilion stands at the crossing of the garden’s main paths. Heinrich Schön the Elder designed it in 1615, and a copy of the bronze Tellus Bavarica crowns its roof.
On the east side, the Bavarian State Chancellery occupies the former Army Museum. The domed original building sits between two modern glass-covered wings.
Leave the garden through its western gate and you arrive at Odeonsplatz, laid out from 1827 as the gateway to Ludwigstraße, the grand boulevard that Ludwig I, then crown prince, commissioned from Leo von Klenze. The square takes its name from the Odeon concert hall that once stood here. The war destroyed all but its facade, and the building now houses the Bavarian Interior Ministry.
Two landmarks anchor the square. The Theatinerkirche, in ochre yellow, was begun in 1663 and completed with its facade in 1768, and its towers and dome are part of the Munich skyline. The Feldherrnhalle, a covered hall with three wide arches built between 1841 and 1844, is modelled on the Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence, with two lion sculptures flanking its steps.
The square has a darker history as well. On 9 November 1923, Hitler’s failed putsch ended here when Bavarian state police stopped the marchers at the Feldherrnhalle. A plaque nearby commemorates the police officers killed.
End the day at the Augustiner-Keller on Arnulfstraße, a short walk west of the Hauptbahnhof and an easy ride from Odeonsplatz on the U5. It serves traditional Bavarian food and beer, and the beer is poured from wooden barrels. The garden holds around 5,000 seats at long shared tables under more than a hundred chestnut trees. The site first appears on a city plan in 1812 as a beer storehouse, and the garden took its present form in a renovation in 1896.
In cooler months, head inside to the historic rooms and vaulted cellar. Either way, order the house beer and let the day wind down.
That is Munich on foot: a medieval gate, a gilded church behind an eight-metre facade, a market breakfast, two town halls, a palace and a chestnut-shaded beer garden, all inside 24 hours. The city is compact enough to walk and old enough that the century changes every few blocks. If you only get one day, this route gives you the best of it. If you get a second, give the Residenz, its Treasury and the views from the towers more time than a single loop allows.
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