St. Maximilian, Parish church near Isar River, Munich, Germany.
St. Maximilian is a Romanesque Revival parish church on the Isar in Munich's Glockenbachviertel. Its light brown brick front has two tall square towers with pointed roofs, rows of arched windows and a clock face on each; a rose window sits between them. A long body with a steep red roof ends in a rounded apse.
Architect Heinrich von Schmidt designed this church, with construction beginning in 1892 and concluding with its consecration in 1908. It was built during a period when Munich was renewing its religious buildings in historicizing styles.
The patron is Saint Maximilian of Lorch, and the choice also recalls Bavaria's first king, Max I Joseph. The high altar, donated by Prince Regent Luitpold, takes the form of a free-standing semicircular wall in reduced, archaising shapes. Locals call the church the "Notre-Dame of Munich" because of its resemblance to the Paris original on the Seine.
The church stands at Auenstraße 1 on the eastern edge of the Glockenbachviertel, on the Isar bank opposite the Deutsches Museum tower. It is closed from Easter 2025 for about two years for renovation and fire protection work costing around 5.8 million euros; services move to the deconsecrated Nazarethkirche in Bogenhausen from Advent 2025 to the end of June 2026.
The two towers lost their octagonal spires after World War II bombing; provisional emergency roofs were placed on them during the 1949 reconstruction and have never been replaced. The high altar, donated by Prince Regent Luitpold, takes the form of a free-standing semicircular wall in deliberately archaic, reduced shapes.
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