ISARTOR

Description

Essentials about the Isartor in brief

The Isartor (Isar Garte) is one of the old city gates of Munich. The gate forms the passage from Isartorplatz to the popular Munich shopping street Tal. The almost completely preserved Isartor is worth a visit not only for lovers of historical sights, but also for fans of the Munich comedian Karl Valentin. Indeed, the two towers of the Isartor house the Valentin-Karlstadt-Musäum, dedicated to Valentin and his companion Liesel Karlstadt.

The history and architecture of the Isartor

Historically, the Isartor dates back to the great expansion of Munich by Ludwig the Bavarian. As part of this, a second city wall was built from 1285 to 1347, the last city gate of which was the Isartor, completed in 1337. The Isartor consists of a gate tower about 40 meters high, which was supplemented by the two flanking side towers in the 15th century during the construction of the Zwingermauer.

The Isartor is almost completely preserved. It is the only one of Munich’s city gates that still has the main tower, which towers over the entire complex as the central tower. The flank towers and the wall courtyard between the main tower and the flank towers are also preserved. Today, the wall between the flank towers has three equally sized gate entrances instead of the original large archway with two smaller side entrances.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the city council had already decided to demolish the Isartor and demolish the walls of the courtyard between the main tower and the flanking towers. The gate owes its preservation to King Ludwig I, who in 1833 commissioned the architect Friedrich von Gärtner to restore the Isartor to its historical form. As part of this restoration, the coats of arms on the flanking towers and the history wall frescoes on the outside of the inner wall above the gate entrances, depicting the triumphal procession of Emperor Ludwig of Bavaria after his battle at Ampfing in 1322, were also added. The central tower received a clock in 1860, which was originally intended for the central tower of the Karlstor, but was then used for the central tower of the Isartor after its destruction by a black powder explosion.

During the Second World War, the Isartor was severely damaged by bomb hits. In the years following the war, the gate underwent only makeshift renovations. In the early 1970s, therefore, a major restoration of the Isartor was carried out, which restored its medieval appearance and corrected some of the decisions made in the restoration of 1833.

The last major change the Isartor underwent was in 2005 when a large clock was reattached to the main tower. A closer look at it quickly reveals that something is wrong here. To the east side the clock shows the time in the usual clockwise direction. On the west side, however, the clock face is a mirror image, and accordingly the hands run counterclockwise. This is a tribute to the Munich comedian Karl Valentin. Because Willy Brandt already knew: “In Bavaria, the clocks go differently”.

The Valentin-Karlstadt-Musäum in the Isartor

Speaking of Karl Valentin: Fans of the Munich comedian should not miss a visit to the Valentin-Karlstadt-Musäum, housed in the two flanking towers of the Isartor. The museum offers many humorous insights into the life and work of Valentin and his colleague and partner Liesl Karlstadt. You can marvel at oddities such as the nail on which Valetin hung his carpentry profession or a fur-trimmed winter toothpick.