Tucked between two mansions on a street near Munich’s center is a church whose interior is perhaps the most over-the-top Baroque or rococo I’ve ever seen, and the exterior is not much less flamboyant, either.
The St John Nepomuk Church, to give it the name no one really calls it, is usually referred to as the Asamkirche, or Asam Church, for the two brothers who built it as a private chapel in the early 18th century.
Unfortunately, when I was in Munich last summer, maintenance work kept the interior off limits; the interior images here are by several photographers who posted them on Wikimedia Commons; the author of each is included in the picture name you’ll see if you hold your mouse over the image.
A gilded Death holds a pair of scissors to end a poor soul’s life…
When I say the Asam brothers built the church, I mean it literally. They weren’t just two rich guys who hired an architect; they were two rich guys who were well-known artists and had been students of Bernini in Rome. Cosmas Damian Asam was primarily a painter, while Egid Quirin Asam was a sculptor and architect.
Details of the house facades
They started the project in 1733 by buying four house lots on Sendlingerstrasse and building a house each for themselves, with a Baroque decorated common facade. Next to it, they left a lot only eight meters wide and 22 meters deep for the church, to which they had direct access from the houses.
Although they intended to keep the church private for themselves, family and friends, the public wanted in, and eventually the church was opened to public worship—although you can see there’s not much space for a lot of public!
The elaborately-painted ceiling is considered one of Cosmas Asam’s top works
The choir area of the church suffered heavy bomb damage in 1944. That area was restored between 1975 and 1983 after extensive study of old plans, pictures and documents to give it its original appearance.
