Rococo rules at one of Munich's most diminutive churches, the Asamkirche

STYLISED: The church fits nicely into Sendlinger Strasse. Photo by LuxTonnerre

The Asamkirche sticks out like a sore thumb.

Wandering down the mega-commercial Sendlinger Strasse you wouldn’t expect to see a rococo masterpiece melding in among the shops, but it’s there, and you do.

I almost had a sensory overload in this place – so much decoration in such a little space! Sure is a long way from the little weatherboard churches we have in rural Australia.

Try to go in the morning when the sun streams through the yellow stained-glass window above the altar and lights the room up like a birthday cake.


Fraternal effort

Brothers Cosmas Damian and Egid Quirin
Asam built the church (1733 to 1746) in the
highly stylised, gold-guilded rococo style.

The ceiling fresco shows the life of church patron Johann Nepomuk. The story goes that he was thrown from Prague’s St. Charles Bridge because he refused to reveal the confessions of the Bohemian queen to the king.

Nepomuk also features as a wax figurine in a glass shrine on the high altar. The altar is framed by four winding columns and there’s portraits of the Asam brothers to either side.

The Asamhaus, where the brothers used to live, is to the left of the church, a priest’s house built later is on the right.

DETAILED: There's a lot to see inside the church. Photo by ~konny.

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