Leuchtenberg Palace

The Palais Leuchtenberg is the largest palace in Munich. Today it houses the Bavarian State Ministry of Finance. The palace (Odeonsplatz 4) is located on the west side of Odeonsplatz.

Eugène de Beauharnais, brother-in-law of the later King Ludwig I of Bavaria, and stepson of Napoleon, commissioned Leo von Klenze to build a "suburban city palace".

Between 1817 and 1821, the aristocratic palace with approximately 250 rooms and several outbuildings was built by Leo von Klenze as the first building on Ludwigstrasse. Leo von Klenze intended the Palais Leuchtenberg to be the standard for the design of this magnificent street. He chose the Neo-Renaissance style, modeled after the Palazzo Farnese in Rome. Already during the construction phase, Klenze visited the French capital to study the odorless movable toilet, which had just been developed there, and to integrate it into the Palais Leuchtenberg. These "fosses inodores et mobiles" soon became standard in almost all new buildings in Munich.

After the death of Eugène de Beauharnais' widow, Auguste von Leuchtenberg, in 1852, the palace was sold to Prince Luitpold, the later Prince Regent of Bavaria.

Until early 1933, the Palais Leuchtenberg was used for representative purposes by the Bavarian royal family and the House of Wittelsbach. During World War II, the palace was severely damaged in air raids in 1943 and 1945. In 1957, the Free State of Bavaria acquired the ruin. After a complete demolition, a new building for the Bavarian State Ministry of Finance was constructed between 1963 and 1967 according to plans by Hans Heid and Franz Simm, using a reinforced concrete skeleton structure with a brick facade and reconstructed exterior. The floor plan does not follow Leo von Klenze's original plans. Only the facade has been faithfully reconstructed, and the representative rooms of the Ministry of Finance as well as the office of the State Minister of Finance are once again located on the "Beletage" on the first floor. Little of the magnificent original furnishings remain; these few pieces are now in Nymphenburg Palace. Bertel Thorvaldsen's Alexanderfrieze is only preserved as a copy, which is now installed in the foyer of the New Herkulessaal of the Residenz.