Michaelskirche

A few meters west of Frauenkirche lies another outstanding church, a shining inheritance of the dark in many ways era of Counter-Reformation, the Michaelskirche (St Michael’s Church).

Inspired by the Jesuit-educated Duke William V (r. 1579 to 1597) as the German counterpart of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, its expensive construction began in 1583 and nearly bankrupted the already indebted Bavarian treasury. Still, the largest Renaissance-style Jesuit church north of the Alps was a powerful statement of the fervent Catholic Wittelsbachs in their fierce battle against the expanding heresy of Protestantism.

The first phase of the construction had been completed by an unknown artist before 1588, with a massive (more than 20 meters) barrel-vaulted roof creating fears of an imminent collapse among the locals. Although the roof remained in perfect condition until WW2, two years after the completion of the first construction phase, the tower of the church which had not raised any concerns, collapsed destroying a part of the church that had just been completed.

Duke William V took it as a sign to build an even greater church assigning the project to the Italian-Dutch painter, decorator, and architect, Friedrich Sustris who built a new, grander choir, a transept, and an amazing facade crowned by a figure of Jesus Christ the “savior of the city & the country”. 

Jesus sits on top of 15 bronze figures of past rulers of the city, in the form of a family tree. A large bronze statue of Archangel Michael killing Satan with his spear stands guard between the two entrances of the church. The interior is dominated by the imposing High Altar of Annunciation & the stucco decoration of the nave that represents the life of Jesus Christ. More