Name: Munich After Dark: Witch Trials, Plague and the Christmas of 1705
SKU: 194

Munich’s dark side, told straight and labeled where it is legend. A Glockenspiel that puts the city’s child to bed every night, and coopers said to have danced away a plague that the records cannot find. A monkey on a castle roof with a duke’s baby. The duke’s prison tower, where a family of poor travelers was tortured into confessing to witchcraft, and a boy of about ten who said he had seen nothing. The devil’s footprint in the cathedral floor, and the trick of the pillars behind it. A bath for the poor hidden in a street name, an artist’s window onto his altar, a fire that began before dawn, the one gate open at night. And Christmas 1705, when peasants who marched on Munich surrendered at Sendling and were killed. History, not horror: real people, named from the records, told with care. Made for the evening on lit streets, and just as good by day. No tickets needed.

The stops

The Marienplatz: A Lullaby for the City
The Alter Hof: The Monkey on the Roof
The Falkenturm: A Family Made to Confess
The Frauenkirche: The Devil’s Footprint
The Hundskugel: Dogs, a Ball and a Bath for the Poor
The Asamkirche: A Window onto the Altar
The Anger: Fire Before Dawn and a Gate for Latecomers
The Sendlinger Tor: Christmas 1705

Finding the start

Start on the Marienplatz in front of the Neues Rathaus, a little west of the golden column in the middle of the square, where you can see the Glockenspiel partway up the town hall tower. The Marienplatz station (U3, U6 and all S-Bahn lines) opens onto the square.

Terrain and access

About 2.9 kilometers on lit streets, level and step-free. Paving in the pedestrian zones, setts in the Alter Hof and on the Unterer Anger, slippery when wet. Busy roads are crossed at lights (Maximilianstraße, Herzog-Wilhelm-Straße, Sendlinger Tor). Made for the evening and usable by day. No admissions needed; everything is seen from outside.

Tickets

No admissions needed; everything is seen from outside.

Keep going

The House That Ran Bavaria: Munich’s Old Town from Dukes to Kings

What you get

An email from [email protected] with a link and an access code.
Use it on your phone or tablet in an up-to-date web browser, no app store needed. There is no account to set up before you start.
Download it on Wi-Fi before you go. After that it works offline: audio, text, map and pictures.
Your booking includes 2 phones, so two of you can follow along, each on your own. Extra phones are $2.95 each, or a group can share one phone on its speaker.
Play, pause and replay every part, skip back and ahead, or change the playback speed. Keep the screen on or tap play at each stop.

How it was made

Every fact in the narration is checked against a cited source, and legends are told as legends. The narration is written from that research. How our tours are made.