The best waterfall hikes and walks in Perlacher Forst

The Nymphenburger Schlossrondell is a historic, listed ensemble with four courtiers' houses designed by Joseph Effner from the 18th century. From here, there is a spectacular view of the palace, the basin, and the fountain. The houses are partly used for events. The Rondell development, which originated from the two outer buildings and was completed after 1730 under Elector Karl Albrecht, son of Max Emanuel, in front of the main wing, was considered an architectural sensation in its time. Ten palaces are located here, symmetrically divided into two groups of five, which were built between 1728 and 1758 for higher court officials.

The smaller of the two palace park lakes, the Pagodenburger See, was completed in 1813. It is named after the Pagodenburg, which lies in the northern part of the lake on an island formed by a ring-shaped canal. The area of the lake, including the island of about one hectare, is 2.9 hectares.

The octagonal floor plan of the Pagodenburg on a small island in the lake named after it was designed by Elector Max Emanuel. Master builder Joseph Effner completed the design and supervised the construction of the pleasure palace from 1716 to 1719. In 1767 it was rebuilt in the Rococo style. The name comes from the decoration of the interiors with Asian motifs. Consequently, the rooms are called "Chinese Salon" or "Chinese Cabinet".

Joseph Effner planned the Great Cascade, which was built in 1717. The water falls from a two-part water staircase, the first step of which is semicircular towards the west, and the second, lower step is shaped towards the east. The cascade continues the symmetry through the central channel. Originally, flanking architecture was planned, but it was never executed. Instead, four sculptures of Greek gods were relocated here from the Großer Parterre at the end of the 18th century.

Until the construction of the stone Temple of Apollo between 1862 and 1865, a round wooden temple stood twice on the headland. The first was erected in 1805 for the Elector Princess's birthday. When it had become dilapidated, a slightly larger replacement structure made of larch wood was built in 1818. The current Temple of Apollo, a monopteros with ten columns in the Corinthian style made of grey-beige sandstone, was designed by Leo von Klenze. Inside, there is a marble stele with a dedication from Ludwig I.

Elector Karl Albrecht gifted his wife Amalie this Rococo building named after her, erected according to the plans of François Cuvilliés from 1734 to 1739 as a small hunting lodge for pheasant hunting. The Amalienburg is a typical late Baroque pleasure palace.

The birth of the Bavarian Prince-Elector Max Emanuel from the House of Wittelsbach in 1662 was the occasion for the construction of a palace with a garden in the area between the villages of Neuhausen and Obermenzing as a gift for the young mother, Electorress Henriette Adelaide of Savoy. The foundation stone for the "Schwaigbau zu Nymphenburg" was laid in 1664. The complex was designed as a pleasure palace in the style of Italian country villas; it only became a Baroque palace complex, which could serve as a summer residence and an alternative to the seat of government, the Munich Residenz, a generation later under Max Emanuel. The model for Nymphenburg was the Piedmontese hunting lodge La Venaria, whose architect Amedeo Castellamonte (1613 to 1683) also provided the initial designs for Nymphenburg.

Greek mythology served as the inspiration for the pictorial program of the Nymphenburg Garden, created in the 18th century: The sculptures represent the sixteen main deities of Olympus. However, their placement was changed with the redesign into an English landscape park. Today, only twelve statues remain in the garden parterre; four were moved to the Great Cascade. Male and female deities alternate.