Bavarian National Museum

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The Bavarian National Museum (Bayerisches Nationalmuseum) in Munich is one of the most important cultural history museums in Europe.

The building, erected in the style of historianism by Gabriel von Seidl 1894-1900, is one of the most original and significant museum buildings of its time. It is situated in the Prinzregentenstrasse, one of the city's four royal avenues. The house replaced an older building which houses today the State Museum of Ethnology.

The museum was founded by king Maximilian II of Bavaria in 1855. It houses a large collection of European artefacts from the Middle Ages until early 20th century. From the beginning the collection has been divided into two main groups: the art historical collection and the folklore collection.

The historical collection displays artworks in a tour through more than forty rooms from the hall for Romanesque art via the rooms for Gothic, Rennaisance, Baroque and Rococo art to the exhibits of Classicism. The museum exhibits especially ivory reliefs, goldsmith works, textiles, glass painting, tapestries, shrines and sculptures. Among the artists are Erasmus Grasser, Tilman Riemenschneider, Hans Leinberger, Adam Krafft, Giovanni Bologna, Hubert Gerhard , Adriaen de Vries, Johann Baptist Straub, Ferdinand Tietz, Ignaz Günther, Matthias Steinl, and Ludwig Schwanthaler.

The museum is also famous for its collections of courtly culture, musical instruments, furnitures, oil paintings, sketches, clocks, stoneware, majolica, miniatures, porcelain and faience.

The folklore collection houses for example traditional Bavarian furnitures, rural pottery and religious folklore including an outstanding collection of Neapolitan wood carvings including street scenes and Nativity Scenes.

A new building behind the museum houses the State Archeological Collections from the first settlement in the Paleolithic Ages through the Roman period right up to the early Middle Ages.