St. Peter's Church is a Roman Catholic church, and also the oldest church, in the inner city of Munich.
Even before Munich was founded as a city in 1158 there had been a pre-Merovingian church on this site. 8th century monks lived around this church on a hill called Petersbergl. At the end of the 12th century a new church in the Bavarian Romanesque style was consecrated, and expanded in Gothic style shortly before the great fire in 1327 destroyed the building. After its reconstruction the church was dedicated anew in 1368. In the early 17th century the 92 metre (about 302 ft.) spire received its Renaissance steeple top and a new Baroque choir was added.
The interior is dominated by the high altar to which Erasmus Grasser contributed the figure of Saint Peter. Among other masterpieces of all periods are five Gothic paintings by Jan Polack and several altars by Ignaz Günther. The ceiling fresco by Johann Baptist Zimmermann (1753-1756) was re-created in 1999-2000.
ST PETER'S CHURCH, MUNICH
The parish church of Saint Peter, whose tower is commonly known as "Alter Peter" - Old Peter - and which is emblematic of Munich, is the oldest recorded parish church in Munich and presumably the originating point for the whole city.
LOCATION
St Peter's church (Petersplatz 1) stands on the Petersbergl, the only raised piece of land within the historic Old Quarter of Munich. Beneath the Petersbergl to the north-west lies the Marienplatz, and to the south-west is the Cattle Market. The parish church is the spiritual centre-point of the Graggenauer district.
HISTORY
By the 8th century a settlement of monks from the Tegernsee monastery had already been extablished on the Petersbergl. Under the church was a concave space which experts date to the pre-Merovingian period, or the early Middle Ages. Excavations in 1958 showed that by the 11th century, still before the founding of the city, the original small wooden church had been developed into a Romanesque church with a nave and two side aisles and two integrated west-towers. Whether this was typical of the Bavarian Monastery-churches of the Romanesque has not been proven. What can be shown, however, is that Otto I of Wittelsbach had the church extended in 1181 and this extended church was consecrated in 1190 by Bishop Otto II of Freising. A hundred years later, this building was torn down and replaced with a more ostentatious church. A substantially bigger church was not necessary, since the parish of the Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady) was drawn up parallel to the newly-built church and in the centre of the district a new parish church was built. The new St Peter's church was consecrated on 17 May 1294 by Bishop Emicho of Freising