The Space of Sport, Sights, and Slaughter

Above Munich - Day 5: The Square in town that held most of the major events in Munich’s history, Marienplatz or St. Mary’s Square, was the focal point for tournaments, markets, and executions. The square was originally known as Schrannen, but renamed as a way to ask Virgin Mary to protect the town from the Cholera epidemic (it didn’t work as Munich had breakouts in 1836, 1854, and 1873). The primary focus of the photo is the New Rathaus, built in 1909 and capped with a 79 foot spire (which you can also climb). In the foreground is St. Mary’s column, erected in 1638 to celebrate the end of the Swedish invasion, and flanked by four statues symbolizing the city’s overcoming of war, pestilence, hunger and heresy. The square is bordered by entries into the U/S-bahn stations. Finally worth mentioning is the famous Glockenspiel on the face of the Rathaus, where characters perform a dance that was performed in 1517 in Marienplatz to commemorate the end of the plague – unfortunately 300 years before Munich’s worst bouts with the plague in the 1800s. Today, it is the love of tourists from all over the world.