Last week, I visited another castle. I sense that this will probably be a pattern in my life here in Europe, because there are a ton of castles I hope to see while I am here. This particular one, Schloss Nymphenburg is right here in Munich. It was built in the late 1600s as a summer palace for the royals, and at the time was a bit outside of the city that has now been built up around it. The grounds were beautiful, especially with the fall colors and the huge expanse of public gardens the castle boasts. We paid to take a tour of the inside and passes on the audio tour (mistake). The inside was preserved well and however small, it was an interesting look into the lives of the Wittelsbachs and the German royalty.
My favorite part was definitely the Gallery of Beauties. Commissioned by King Ludwig I of Bavaria, it contains paintings of 36 women from all social classes of Munich. King Ludwig would hold a sort of competition to find the most beautiful woman in Munich, and would then invite her to the palace to have her picture painted. The paintings were displayed in the city and open to the public's viewing before a fire that had them all moved into the palace. It's pretty funny to me that this Gallery of Beauties is in the Queen's pavilion of the castle. One of the paintings is even of Ludwig's infamous mistress. Ouch.
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