Art Galleries in Munich

Opened in 2015, the Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism (NS-Dokumentationszentrum München) chronicles the origins and rise of the National Socialists: the N**i party.

Set in the villa that once served as the home and studio of Franz von Lenbach, a popular late 19th-century artist and portraitist, Lenbachhaus and its modern extension house an unparalleled collection of paintings of the Blauer Reiter (Blue Rider) group. This movement, led by Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc, transformed the art world in the early 20th century.

Located in a stunning modern building in Munich's art district, Kunstareal, Pinakothek der Moderne incorporates the former State Gallery of Modern Art with three other outstanding collections to form Germany's largest museum of modern art.

The recently renovated Glyptothek - a name derived from the Greek "glyptik," meaning sculpture - is the oldest museum in Munich. Completed in 1830, this Neoclassical building houses one of Europe's foremost collections of sculpture, much of it assembled in the early 19th-century by King Ludwig I, a great lover of ancient art.

Founded in 1855 by King Maximilian II, the Bavarian National Museum (Bayerisches Nationalmuseum) is one of Europe's most important museums of decorative arts. It stands on a forum-like extension of the magnificent Prinzregentenstrasse.

The New Picture Gallery (Neue Pinakothek), established in 1853 by King Ludwig I of Bavaria, is considered to be one of the world's most important collections of 19th-century artwork. In its possession are some 400 paintings and 50 works of sculpture ranging from Rococo to Art Nouveau masterpieces, as well as works by Cézanne, Gauguin, van Gogh, Manet, and Monet.

At the time of construction, this splendid old art gallery - modeled on the Renaissance palaces of Venice - was the largest gallery in Europe, built in the first half of the 19th century. As such, it became the model for others built later in places like Rome and Brussels.

The Deutsches Museum (German Museum in English) is the world's largest museum of technology, covering more than 50,000 square meters and displaying some 28,000 artifacts.

The many art treasures assembled by the Dukes and Electors of Bavaria over the centuries make the Treasury (Schatzkammer) of the Munich Residenz one of the largest (it contains more than 1250 works of art), most important, and most valuable collections of its kind.

Located in the massive Munich Residenz (Munich Residence), the main palace of Bavaria's rulers, the Residence Museum (Residenz Museum) is the most important (and largest) of the city's many museums and galleries. While much of this huge palace complex is open to the public, many of its more interesting sites are included under the umbrella of the Residenz Museum, which opened to the public in 1920 and is now considered one of the best palace museums in Europe.