Munich

mu'nik, the capital and metropolis of Bavaria. It is situated on a high, level plain on both banks of the Isar. The latter is spanned by nine bridges. The city is considered one of the handsomest in Europe. It was surrounded formerly by walls and ditches. These have been leveled off and converted into boulevards. Three of the old gates, with their lofty, flanking turrets, have been preserved. The city is divided into two parts--the old quarter and the new. Munich is noted for iron and brass manufactures; also for stained glass and optical instruments. It is one of the great centers of beer making, possibly the greatest in the world. The annual production of Munich beer is not far from 50,000,000 gallons, three-fourths of which is consumed in the restaurants and cafes of the city.

From an artistic point of view Munich is one of the most interesting cities in Europe. Buildings have been erected seemingly regardless of expense. Beautiful public squares and gardens are adorned with statues of Joseph, Maximilian II, and other notables. A colossal bronze figure of Bavaria is sixty-five feet in height. The city is almost exclusively Catholic. The cathedral is a vast brick edifice with lofty towers 330 feet in height. The royal, that is to say, the public library contains upward of 1,000,000 volumes and 25,000 manuscripts. The staircase is one of the handsomest library staircases in the world. It is flanked on either side by a gallery supported by marble columns. The walls are adorned with medallion portraits of celebrated poets and scholars. The university library contains in addition 300,000 volumes. The national museum contains a collection of objects arranged historically to illustrate the progress of civilization from the earliest period of Roman occupancy to the present time. A building, known as the Old Pinakothek or the repository of pictures, contains over 1,400 pictures arranged in large saloons, according to schools, that is to say, chronologically. It is one of the most celebrated collections of paintings in Europe. It contains work by Raphael, Correggio, Titian, Murillo, Holbein, Rubens, Vandyke, Rembrandt, Durer, and other masters. A second building called the New Pinakothek contains modern pictures, including excellent copies of the masterpieces of the older painters. The Museum of Sculpture, known locally as the Glyptothek, shelters a scarcely less celebrated collection of ancient sculpture. There are colossal lions with human heads, and reliefs in alabaster from Assyria; black marble statues, obelisks, and mummies from Egypt; reliefs in bronze, and urns from Etruria; sculptures from the Temple of Minerva in the island of Aegina; and Grecian busts, vases, urns, and statues representing Apollo, Bacchus, Niobe, Medusa, and Venus, almost without end. A mere enumeration of the treasures of art fills a large catalog.

Munich lacks the commercial activity of some European cities, but, as a place of residence for the lover of books and art, it is hardly surpassed. Population, 539,000.

See Bavaria