Asamkirche (Asam Church)
Tucked into a narrow residential street just five minutes' walk from Marienplatz, the Asamkirche is one of the most astonishing small churches in Europe and is routinely walked past by visitors who don't know it exists. Built between 1733 and 1746 by the brothers Cosmas Damian and Egid Quirin Asam as their private chapel, it was never meant for a congregation — which is why it measures only 28 met
Inside the Asam Brothers' Vision
Every centimetre of the interior is intentional: the Asam brothers were both architect and artist, and the church is essentially a three-dimensional painting. The high altar is framed by twisted columns of dark red stucco marble, topped by a glass reliquary that glows amber when backlit by hidden windows — a Baroque lighting trick that predates cinema by 150 years. Look up at the ceiling fresco depicting the life of St John Nepomuk and you will notice the perspective is deliberately distorted to appear correct only when viewed from the entrance doorway.
The brothers built their own residence directly next to the church — the Asamhaus — and cut a private window in the party wall so Egid Quirin could look directly onto the altar from his bedroom. The window is still visible from inside the church, a wonderfully eccentric detail that reveals how personally these men inhabited their creation.
Practical Tips for Visiting
The church is free to enter and receives a fraction of the visitors that crowd the Frauenkirche a few streets away. It is genuinely small — capacity is around 60 people — so visit on a weekday morning for the quietest experience. Photography without flash is permitted and the interior rewards slow, close-up observation: the quality of the gilded stucco carving is extraordinary at close range.
The Asamkirche sits on Sendlinger Strasse, a lively shopping street that connects Marienplatz to Sendlinger Tor. Combine the visit with a walk south to Sendlinger Tor — one of Munich's surviving medieval city gates — and then cut east to the Müller'sches Volksbad, a spectacular Jugendstil public swimming bath on the Isar river bank, for a genuinely off-the-tourist-trail afternoon.
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