Martin M. Miles' photos

Blutenburg castle - just west of Munich. Place of a romantic and tragic love story. Here lived around 1432/35 Albrecht, only son of Duke Earnest of Bavaria, and his wife Agnes Bernauer, daughter of a humble craftsman. This was not an arranged marriage, they obviously fall in love to each other - and had married secretly. After some years Albrecht´s father considered the liaison unbefitting his son’s social standing. They clashed over the matter and finally - in the absence of his son - the father arranged to have Agnes condemned for witchcraft and drowned in the Donau River in 1435. Emperor Sigismund stepped in, to cool down the situation between father and son - and in the end, Albrecht bowed his head and married, just a year after Agnes´ death, Anna of Brunswick, the daughter in law, his family wanted to have.

When the church was completed, the devil came with his friends, the winds. He asked them, to stay outside, entered the church to finish the deal with Mr. von Halsbach. The deal was, that in return of the devil´s support, the architect had to build a windowless church. From this place, you cannot see any sidewindows. The devil fouriously stamped his foot and so left his footstep. Then he vanished. He forgot his friends outside, so still today, there are always winds going around the church.

The "Frauenkirche" is a huge church built from red bricks. The towers are 98m high, being the highest structures in Munich. Buildings exceeding this height are sofar prohibited by the local authorities. The church replaced a romanesque-one, when the architect Joerg von Halsbach started to build in 1468 - and completed it within only 20 years. It is gigantic and can hold about 20.000 people. The population of Munich may have been 12.000 (or even less) at that time the hurch was built. There were always rumors, that Mr. von Halsbach had a deal with the devil, who supported him.

A short walk from "Viktualenmarkt" we reached "Marienplatz", named after the pillar with the golden statue in the middle. Overtowering the place is the new town-hall, built in neogothic style in the second half of the 19th century. The central tower hosts one of the biggest carillons in Europe and at full hours all tourist gather here, to listen. In the back are the two big towers of the Frauenkirche ("Cathedral of Our Blessed Lady")

In the middle of Munich is a very small hill. On the foot of that is the "Viktualien-Markt", a popular market not only for for gourmets but also for "early drinkers", as the beer-garden there opens at 9am. On top of the hill you see Munich´s oldest parish church Saint Peter. Munich was for centuries just a village with small monastery. The name "Muenchen" derives from latin "apud Munichen" , what translates to "at the monks".

The St. Mary-statue on the pillar - in front of colourful houses. On the right you see chairs and tables. They belong to an ice cream parlour, whose owner had decided that day, that winter was gone and the guests could sit outside again. Weilheim is a center of contemporary music. Lots of (indipendent) bands were founded here. The best knon is "The Notwist". www.notwist.de/

The center of Weilheim, one of the major towns southwest of Munich, is the marketplace. The sky is still blue on an early winter-evening. In the center of the place, surrounded by trees is a St. Mary statue. As this is a pedestrian area - there are no cars. The churchtower still has a balcony around. That´s where the night-watchman did his job a couple of hundred years ago.

Peeping over the wall. Maybe here is the well known boarding school, existing since more than 250 years. In February 2010 ths boardings school entered the news, as one of the scandalous places, where minors were abused. The abbot and the prior have resigned meanwhile.

The fresco under the dome. Unfortunately I did not dare to lay down on to the ground in the center. And I did not know, if, in case I would do it, I would be able to get up again without help. Next time, I´ll try to do..

The buildings we see today were all built after the big fire of 1744. After the rebuilding lots of pilgrims walked up the valley to the abbey-church, to see the miraculous statue of St. Mary, that is still here. The Ettal abbey owns a couple of guesthouses and pubs, a brewery (since 1609), a cheese-factory and a destillery. Actually I do prefer the beer from Kloster Andechs. The herbal schnaps is green - and comes in a bootle looking like one of the smaller steeples of the church. Tres chic!

The small village of Ettal (pop. 800) has two main tourist-attractions. 1. "Schloss Linderhof", a fairy-tale castles bavarian King Ludwig II has built mid 19th century. 2. The Benedictine abbey "Kloster Ettal". - I just visited the abbey, that was founded 1330. Nothing out of the early time seems to have survived. All what is to see now is baroque - and it is really big. The dome of the church towers above the village.

I could hear the owner of that bike playing the organ in the little chapel. So I entered and listened for a while. The chapel was on the end of the village, off a residential street, named "Roemerstrasse". Here had been the roman road leading south from Augsburg (founded 15bC as "Augusta Vindelicorum" - and so being the second oldest town/city in Germany.)

The Feldafing station (seen from the "railside") needs more than just love and care. There are discussions about buying it from "Deutsche Bahn". The local mayor would like to see a restaurant in the building, but that is probably a long way. If you compare this photo to thatone of the station in Possenhofen, you´ll see their "cousinship".

As King Maximilian II had another summerhouse on the romantic "Roseninsel", a tiny island in the Lake Starnberg, sometimes he or "Sisi" left the train in Feldafing. So this village got a station very similar to that in nearby Possenhofen. It looks like Tuskan villa. The station nowadays is pretty rotten. Kibri, a producer of plastic toys and kits, offered over years a scale model (1:87 = H0) of this station for railway modelling.

The station of Possenhofen, a village on the Lake Starnberg, 30kms southwest of Munich. The bavarian royality owned a chateau in Possenhofen and to have a conveniant access, bavarian King Maximilian II had this station built in 1865. Elisabeth of Bavaria (aka "Sisi") spouse of Francis Joseph I, Empress of Austria, Queen of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia, spent her youth here. Later she often returned for holidays, using custombuilt "imperial waggons", that parked here. Now it is "only" a station of the S-Bahn, the Munich suburban railway, but inside is a little "Sisi-Museum", officially named "Kaiserin Elisabeth Museum".

The interior was decorated 1755 in rococo-style by the bavarian artist Johann Baptist Zimmermann. The treasure of the Andechs castle was a collection of relics (among them a "sanctum praeputium"), which very early attracted pilgrims. When the House of Andechs-Merania had gone under - this treasure was gone as well. It was retrieved (thanks to a mouse) concealed in the ground. Then the relics were taken to Munic, the Wittelsbach-capital. But they returned to Andechs, after a new church was built - and a monastery was founded. As pilgrims came again, the first pub here is recorded 1438. This monastery existed upto secularisation (1803), when the buildings were sold. Later the bavarian king Ludwig I bought them - and gave them back to the Benedictins in 1850. Since then it exists as a priory to the abbey St. Bonifaz (founded by Ludwig I) in Munich. The money spent for charity in Munich - is earned in the beer garden in Andechs! Cheers!

A view from the "holy mountain of Andechs" south to the Alps. Luck left the House of Andechs Merania exactly on Juin 21, 1208. That day King Philip of Swabia was murdered during the wedding of his niece Beatrix and Otto VII of Andechs-Merania. Immidiatly the House of Andechs-Merania was under suspect - and witin short time lost all their land, properties and political power. Even the castle in Andechs got destroyed. Though it was soon known, that Otto VIII. of Wittelsbach stabbed the king, the House of Wittelsbach was the great winner of the situation. From that time on, they played a very important role as "The royal family of Bavaria". Current head today is Franz, Duke of Bavaria, born 1933, great-grandson of the last King of Bavaria, Ludwig III.

The church, (re-) built (after a fire)in 1675. Andechs has a long history. Here was once the castle of the House of Andechs, strong supporters of Friedrich I (Barbarossa). He promoted them, so that within the 12th century, they entered the nobel premier league. The name changed to "Duke of Andechs-Merania" and their daughters married into the highest families. Saint Elisabeth of Thuringia and Saint Hedwig of Silesia belong to this family. Actually within the family tree are 28 (!) beatified and saint persons.