Oberschleissheim - New Schleißheim Palace - Baroque Splendour beyond the Flower Parterre

The magnificent façade of New Schleißheim Palace rises behind colourful geometric flower beds in the historic Baroque court garden at Oberschleissheim, Bavaria.

New Schleißheim Palace in Oberschleissheim, Bavaria, forms the monumental centrepiece of the Schleißheim Palace complex and is one of the most impressive Baroque residences associated with the Wittelsbach dynasty. The photograph shows the long, symmetrical palace façade rising behind the carefully arranged flower parterre, where colourful geometric beds, clipped lawns and pale gravel paths create a striking formal foreground. Elector Max Emanuel commissioned the New Palace as part of an ambitious plan for a grand residential complex. The shell was erected between 1701 and 1704 under Henrico Zuccalli, but construction was interrupted following Max Emanuel’s military defeats and exile during the War of the Spanish Succession. Work resumed after his return, and from 1719 the Paris-trained court architect Joseph Effner designed the façade and interiors in the fashionable French late-Baroque style. The palace was completed around 1726, although the much larger four-winged scheme originally envisioned was never realised. Its adjoining court garden, with formal parterres, canals and long axial views, remains one of the most important surviving Baroque gardens in Bavaria.