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Marstallmuseum

Museum of carriages and sleighs in the former royal stables

The coach-house known as the "Rich Remise" which was built by the Bavarian elector Maximilian I (reigned 1597-1651) on the east side of his town residence, was used for the Wittelsbachs’ carriages and harness for centuries. In 1923 this substantial collection, by then the property of the "Wittelsbacher Ausgleichsfonds" (Wittelsbach Compensation Fund) was first exhibited in the former court riding school on Marstallplatz. At the beginning of the Second World War, it was decided that the museum should be transferred to the former stables in the Cavaliers’ Building of Nymphenburg Palace. The actual move did not take place until 1941, three years before the riding school was almost completely destroyed in an air raid. In 1952 the Marstallmuseum was opened in Nymphenburg.

In 1986, after the building had been comprehensively renovated, the entire collection was rearranged according to modern museum concepts and exhibited largely in the form in which we see it today. Additional rooms were opened on the upper floor where precious riding equipment, including the harness of the two Munich coronation coaches of 1813 and 1818, and the gala sedan chairs are on display. In 1994 the state vehicles belonging to King Ludwig II and the numerous gala harnesses used with them, together with the portraits of the king’s riding horses, were included among the permanent exhibits of the Marstallmuseum.

The Marstallmuseum’s collection of carriages and sleighs from the 18th and 19th centuries is one of the most important of its kind in Europe, and ranks alongside the Picadeiro (the former court riding school) in Lisbon and the comprehensive exhibition in the coach-house of Vienna’s Schönbrunn Palace

 

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