Alte Pfarrkirche St. Margaret, Baroque parish church in Sendling, Munich, Germany
Alte Pfarrkirche St. Margaret is a baroque village church in Untersendling, Munich, built 1711–1713 to plans by Wolfgang Zwerger. Its four-bay nave and 3/8 choir share a hipped roof covered in wood shingles since the 2003–05 renovation. The square west tower becomes octagonal in its upper two storeys and is topped by a lantern-crowned dome. Inside, a flat barrel vault with lunettes carries coloured stucco by Peter Franz Appiani, and three altars in dark red and grey marble-like frames line the walls.
The present church was built from 1711 to 1713 to plans by Wolfgang Zwerger, replacing a probably Gothic predecessor wrecked in the Sendlinger Christmas massacre of 1705, when imperial troops killed around 1,000 insurgents. Medieval masonry was reused in the tower, and the only surviving old glass painting, signed "Lienhart Ötl 1493", was set into the left apse window. Renovations followed in 1935/36, 1964/65 after bomb damage, and 2003–05 before the battle's tercentenary.
The high altar of 1712 by Franz Fröhlich shows Saint Margaret, flanked by wooden figures of John and George. The left side altar depicts the Holy Family, the right one the Virgin and Child with the Three Kings. The vault frescoes, attributed to Caspar Gottfried Stuber and painted around 1712 with his son Nikolaus Gottfried, run from the Immaculate Mary to the Last Judgement above the organ.
The church stands at Plinganserstraße 1, on the corner of Lindwurmstraße on the Isar terrace slope, opposite the Kochel blacksmith monument. The nave is entered from the south side, where a two-room sacristy and a portal porch are attached. The cemetery beside it holds mass graves of 1705 victims and a neoclassical memorial from 1830.
A preserved stained glass window from 1493 survives from the original Gothic church and remains visible in the left apse window. This fragment unexpectedly bridges the two very different building phases of the structure.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 94,771 contributors worldwide.