ST. MICHAEL’S CHURCH

Description

Essentials about St. Michael’s Church in brief

The 16th-century Jesuit St. Michael’s Church in Munich’s old town is one of the most important Catholic churches in Bavaria. It was one of the spiritual centers of the Counter-Reformation in Bavaria and a model for many baroque churches in German-speaking countries. St. Michael is best known as one of the burial churches of the Bavarian ruling dynasty of the Wittelsbach.

The history and architecture of St. Michael’s Church

Historically, St. Michael’s Church dates back to an agreement between Duke Albrecht V and the Jesuits to establish a secondary school in Munich in 1556. In order to provide the order with adequate rooms for the school, a new building was necessary. However, this was only begun under Albrecht’s son, Wilhelm V. Wilhelm, as a decided counter-reformer, initiated the construction of a Jesuit college with a collegiate church.

The foundation stone was laid in 1583, and the ducal court artist Friedrich Sustris and the Augsburg carpenter Wendel Dietrich were probably responsible for the architectural designs. The monumental barrel vault of St. Michael’s, which was added in 1587/88, is particularly impressive. Despite pessimistic voices at the time, it held up until the air raids on Munich during World War II. In 1590, however, the tower collapsed, destroying the choir, so construction could not continue until three years later. In 1597, St. Michael was consecrated. Due to the extremely costly building measures, William V came to the brink of national bankruptcy.

The Jesuits took care of the church and college until they were banned in 1773, the same year St. Michael became the court church. During the secularization the college and the church of St. Michael came into royal possession. They are still the property of the Free State of Bavaria. During the Second World War, St. Michael was badly damaged in air raids in 1944. Between 1946 and 1948 the church was rebuilt.

The facade of St. Michael’s Church

In the gable of the facade Christ is enthroned as Salvator (Savior) and directly below him in the niche of the first floor the archangel and eponym Michael, who in the fight for the true faith kills all evil of this world with the lance. Between the two are depicted the figures of 15 rulers who, in the opinion of Wilhelm V, rendered outstanding service as fighters and defenders of the Christian faith in Bavaria.

The interior of St. Michael’s Church

The interior is a representation of the triumph of Catholicism as true Christianity during the Counter-Reformation. The mighty nave depicts the life of Jesus: Christ is seen as a child on the interior wall of the facade. Angels in robes carrying the instruments of his suffering accompany his journey. His goal is the cross, which stands at the steps to the choir. The choir above the tomb is the room of the resurrection, which leads to the high altar. There the central focus of the whole church, Jesus shows himself as the Lord who will return at the end of time.

The princes’ crypt of St. Michael’s Church

St. Michael’s Church is significant above all for its tombs. From the very beginning, it was conceived as the burial place of the Bavarian ruling dynasty of the Wittelsbach dynasty and therefore has a princely crypt which, with 36 tombs, is one of the most important burial places of the Bavarian ruling dynasty, along with the Theatine Church and the Frauendom. Thus, Wilhelm V was buried in the crypt at his own request, as was his son Elector Maximilian I.

From the second half of the 17th century onwards, only the bodies of the deceased were usually buried here; the hearts were usually buried separately in the Chapel of Grace in Altötting. The most famous ruler to rest in St. Michael’s is King Ludwig II, for whose zinc coffin even the builder had to make way from the predestined place in the crypt. His brother, King Otto, was also buried here. Most of the Bavarian Wittelsbachers of modern history, however, have found their final resting place in the crypt of the Theatine Church.