Viktualienmarkt
Munich's gourmet open-air market has run six days a week since King Maximilian I ordered it built in 1807 — and it still feels like the city actually shops here.
Coming soon on iOS — be first to walk Munich offline.
Spread across 140 stalls and shops, the Viktualienmarkt grew from a royal decree to relocate a cramped grain market into a full gourmet square selling game, poultry, exotic fruit, spices, cheese, fish, and flowers. The city fought off post-WWII plans to demolish it for multi-story buildings — then paid to revive it.
What to look for
- Memorial fountains for Munich folk comedians Karl Valentin, Weiß Ferdl, and Liesl Karlstadt — placed here by citizens after WWII
- Stalls specialising in game and poultry, a legacy of the venison and bird vendors who expanded at the foot of Petersbergl
- The flower vendors, whose stands have anchored the market's edges since the 19th century
Open daily except Sundays and public holidays; located in central Munich, directly adjacent to the old Marienplatz area.
Viktualienmarkt is one of 37 sights worth the detour in Munich, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Munich pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Munich
- Allianz ArenaThe world's first stadium with a full color-changing exterior — 75,000 seats wrapped in inflated ETFE plastic panels that can change color across the entire facade.
- Deutsches Museum125,000 objects across 50 fields of science and technology — all on a former coal island in the Isar.
- Nymphenburg PalaceAt 632 metres across, this Baroque summer palace is wider than Versailles — and it started as a birth announcement.
- Alte PinakothekThe gallery that taught Europe how to build a museum — then filled it with five centuries of Old Masters.
- FrauenkircheThe twin towers top out at just over 98 meters — Munich caps the entire city at 99 m, so nothing can overtake them on the skyline.
- Englischer GartenA Massachusetts-born American Loyalist, fleeing Britain after the Revolution, drew up plans for what became one of the world's largest urban parks.