Die beste Bildung

Since I already had visited Salzburg with my parents seven years ago, I didn’t go on the class trip to the town. Instead, I went with Jonathan to Schloss Schleißheim, one of the palaces of the Wittelsbach dynasty of Bavaria. The palace was just a little more than half an hour away from our student residence, so it made for quite an easy trip.

The palace is divided into three parts: the Altes Schloss (Old Palace), which is now a museum, the Neues Schloss (New Palace), and the Lustheim Garden Palace. Inside the Altes Schloss was an excellent collection of religious art from all around the world called “Das Gottesjahr und seine Feste” (The Year of God and its Festivals). There were models which depicted the upbringing, mission, passion and resurrection of Christ, as well as other well-known biblical scenes such as the creation and Noah’s Ark. I normally am not a big fan of religious art as they generally involve a very narrow range of themes (hence I almost fell asleep while visiting the Alte Pinakothek), but this time it was very different. Due to the different cultural and historical backgrounds of each model, creativity and variation were abound. There were elephants visiting the baby Jesus in nativity scenes, the three kings wearing mexican hats, even the Jesus sitting on a rock in Macchu Picchu.

Modern nativity scenes. The one on the left was created in memoriam of the victims of Auschwitz.

My favourite was the Noah’s Ark scene produced by a Brazilian artist, which depicted very exotic creatures such as komodo dragons and anteaters. The exhibits really made me reconsider how flexible and interesting religious art can be – and I learnt to appreciate the fact that common religion promoted cultural intercourse in that the same idea could be interpreted from any place in the world in so radically different ways.

Left: Noah’s ark; Right: The Last Supper

The Neues Schloss was interesting too, but in a very different manner. The ground floor houses part of the Bavarian National Art Collection (i.e. paintings from the Renaissance up till the late 1700s), whereas the second floor has been kept more or less in its original condition. This was my first visit to a Baroque palace, so the grandiose architecture with elaborate carvings left a very deep impression on me. There were suprisingly few visitors to this palace (probably because most guide books only mention Nymphenburg and the Residenz), with the exception of a wedding ceremony being held in the chapel. I almost immediately decided that I were to get married one day, I would love to do it here.

Left: View of the Neues Schloss from the entrance of the Altes Schloss;
Right: View of the Vestibül from the Treppenhaus

Left: The Großer Saal in the Neues Schloss, nowadays used as a concert hall;
Right: The Große Gallerie, famous for its immaculately preserved chandelier collection

It rained a bit while we were inside the Neues Schloss. Fortunately, the weather got better later on in the afternoon, so we could walk through the gardens behind the Neues Schloss and head to Schloss Lustheim. It was an extraordinarily well-designed and perfectly-groomed garden which could be accessed without charge, so if you lived nearby you could enjoy the garden as often as you want. Münchners have just so many ways to make me green with envy!

Left: the Baroque gardens behind the Neues Schloss;
Right: Schloss Lustheim, which now houses a porcelain collection

The day ended with dinner at News Bar near the Ludwig-Maximillian Universität, the same restaurant in which Shelina and I dined after our trip to Neuschwanstein. As it’s name suggests, the news is the theme of this bar, and there were many large screen TVs displaying news programs from all over the world, as well as a good collection of news magazines such as Der Spiegel, The Economist and Time. It reminded me that I haven’t paid attention to the news ever since I came to Munich (unfortunately, I forgot about reading the Süddeutsche Zeitung after reading just one article. Fortunately, I think everybody else in the group did the same). I guess I have a lot to catch up with once my trip ends, but for the time being I’ll just focus on my travels, and I’m enjoying every bit of it.