St. Peter's Church, Munich

St Peter’s Church stands in Munich’s old town on a hill called Petersbergl. It is the city’s oldest parish church and the place where Munich began. The church’s 91-metre tower, known as Alter Peter, is the tallest point in the inner city and has watched over Munich since the 12th century. Before Munich existed as a town, an eighth-century monastery stood on this hill. A Romanesque church replaced it in the late 1100s, then a Gothic rebuild followed the great fire of 1327.

The church holds works by Erasmus Grasser, Jan Polack and Ignaz Günther. The high altar shows Saint Peter by Grasser, while Polack painted five Gothic panels and Günther carved several altars. The ceiling fresco by Johann Baptist Zimmermann from the 1750s covers the nave in bright colours. Relics of saints Munditia and Erasmus of Formia are kept inside. The church was badly damaged in the Second World War and rebuilt afterwards.

Visitors climb the tower for views across Munich’s rooftops. Eight bells hang in the spire, four of them medieval. The oldest is the Poor Sinner’s Bell from after 1327, once rung at executions. The Jubilee Bell, cast in 1958, is the heaviest in the city and only sounds on special days. The tower’s Baroque steeple top and the restored nave show layers of Munich’s history.