Bavaria Statue

This guide to the Bavaria statue in Munich follows King Ludwig the First's plan for a colossal guardian over the Theresienwiese festival grounds, sculpted by Ludwig Schwanthaler and cast in bronze by Ferdinand von Miller starting with her head in 1844. It traces how Ludwig's 1848 abdication gutted the project's funding, and how Miller kept pouring anyway, sinking his own money into the statue until the former king stepped in as a private citizen. Climb the narrow spiral stair inside her, past the cast-iron couches built into her skull, toward the view through her helmet.