On Sundays, the Pinakothek museums in Munich offer reduced admission. Only 1 Euro. Jonathan and I decided to take advantage of this today, since they were only a few minutes walk from where we’re staying.
We visited the Glyptothek Museum first (the museum that holds Greek and Roman Sculpture).
The building housing the Glyptothek is part of a squre that served as a favorite rally point for the 3rd Reich. They even put marble over all the grass so that they could march better. There was a challenge with this though. You’ll find out in our video (coming soon).
Unfortuantely, during WWII, the buiding (and the art inside it) were destroyed. So, all the sculptures that had been taken from ancient Greece and ancient Rome were demolished. It took over 30 years for art historians, sculpturists, and volunteers to put everything back together again. Needless to say, some of the pieces didn’t make it. But some of them did. It was pretty amazing to look around at the sculptures and see pictures of what they looked like before the bombing. Some of them looked drastically different, and some of them looked exactly the same.

From here we went over to the Alte Pinakothek. The Alte Pinakothek was also bombed during WWII. However, only a section was permanently damaged. The sides of the buiding are still original, even though the middle had to be rebuilt. This is the museum that is home to paintings. It houses over 800 paintings. Jonathan and I only had a little over an hour before they closed, so we only got through about half.
They definnitely make use of all their space in the Alte Pinakothek. Paintings are hung nearly to the ceiling, and even the hallways have been converted into galleries.


It was really cool to see some of the world’s most famous paintings. I got to see the self portrait of Albrecht Duerer (the leading German artist of the Renaissance). Albrecht Duerer is also famous for being one of the first artists to sign his name to his work. Before him, work was done for (and therefore owned by) the church. In Duerer’s earlier work, his signature (usually AD) is difficult to find. But it becomes more defined as time goes on.
If you ever find yourself in Munich, definitely take the time, and save the money by going on a Sunday, and visit the Pinakothek museums. You’ll be walking right through history.