MUNICH, or MUNCHEN, mild Germany, the capital of Bavaria, one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, lies on an extensive but uninteresting plateau, about 1,700 feet above sea-level, on the left bank of the Isar, with suburbs on the right, the river being crossed by nine bridges. The original nucleus of the town was at one time surrounded by walls and ditches, and entered by lofty turreted gates. The ditches have been filled up and the walls removed, but three of the old gates, with their loopholed and embattled flanking towers, still remain. In the older part of the town there are many old houses, irregular both in size and form, and of quaint but not unpicturesque arch itecture. This quarter, though it contains the government offices and many public edifices, is surpassed, both in extent and magnificence, by the new town, which has risen chiefly to the north and west, with almost unexampled ra pidity and splendor, due to the art-loving pro clivities of King Ludwig I and his successors, who spent over 7,000,000 dialers in beautifying the city, and adorning it with buildings of al most every style of architecture, wide and hand some streets, and squares and gardens deco rated with statues and other monuments. Near the centre of the city, between the Max-Joseph Platz and the palace gardens, is the royal palace, consisting of an old central building of vast extent and two modern wings. From this great pile run at right angles to each other the two finest streets in Munich —the Maximilian strasse and the Ludwigstrasse. The chief pub lic buildings are the old town-house and the new, the latter in the Gothic style, considerably enlarged in 1899; the old palace and the Herzog Max Burg, now used as public offices; the post office; the central station (1880) ; the chief cus toms house (1876-79) ; and the new palace of justice (1897). Buildings connected with art embrace the gallery of sculpture, or Glyptothelc, an edifice of the Ionic order, containing a series of the finest ancient and modern sculptures; the Old Pinakothek or picture-gallery (1826-36) another beautiful edifice, containing one of the richest collections of pictures in the world; the New Pinakothek, adorned externally with fres coes and containing only paintings by recent masters; the academy of arts, an imposing building in the renaissance style; the academy of the plastic arts (1885); the Schack Gallery of paintings (1894), named from its donor; the Schwanthaler and Kaulbach museums, etc.
The Crystal Palace (1854) is used for the an nual art exhibitions. Other collections are the Hof-und-Staats Bibliothek, with 1,100,000 printed volumes and over 50,000 MSS.; the old national museum, now used for art collections; the new Bavarian national museum (1899), etc. The German Museum is in all probability the finest museum of technology and the physical sciences in the world. The chief theatre is the Royal and National Theatre, with a lofty Corinthian portico. Munich is rich in monuments, which adorn its squares, gardens and public promenades. Among the chief are the monument of Maximilian II, with his statue 26 feet high, and the colossal bronze statue of 65 feet high. It is a hollow female figure, designed by Schwanthaler and cast from foreign cannon. From the head a fine view of the city and the Alps is obtained. It stands on a low eminence in front of the (Hall of Fame,* a Doric building of horse-shoe shape, contain ing busts of notable Bavarians. The of Victory," in imitation of the arch of Constan tine at Rome, and the Propylma, in imitation of that at Athens, should also be mentioned. There is a fine statue of Maximilian I by Thor waldsen, and statues of Schiller, Gluck, Schel ling, Fraunhofer and Gartner, a bronze monu ment to the Bavarian soldiers who died in the war with Russia and a monument to the chem ist Liebig. The Hofgarten is a garden near the palace, finely planted, and surrounded by an open and richly ornamented arcade; the so called English Garden is an extensive and beautiful park. The cemeteries of Munich are noteworthy for their artistic tombs, probably the most beautiful in Europe. The ecclesias tical buildings, include the cathedral or Frauen kirche, founded in 1488, a vast pile, entirely of brick, with two lofty towers, terminating in domes 333 feet high; Saint Michael's or the Jesuits' Church (1583), a handsome Italian structure; the church of the Theatines, another Italian structure, beneath which are the burial vaults of the royal family; the church of Saint Louis, a modern building of brick, faced with white marble, decorated externally with statues by Schwanthaler, and internally by the finest frescoes of Cornelius; the church of All Saints; the basilica or church of Saint Boniface; the Mariahilf church on the right side of the river ; the three Protestant churches; and the Jewish synagogue. At the head of the educational in stitutions is the university. (See MUNICH,