Michaelskirche, the fairy-tale king’s tomb

Look at the niche between the two doors. That bronze angel driving his spear into a half-human demon is Saint Michael, made by Hubert Gerhard in 1588. The whole façade is a Counter-Reformation message: Christ at the top, the archangel below, and in between, the rulers who, in the eyes of Duke William V, had defended the faith in Bavaria.

1A tower that came crashing down

William V, known as the Pious, commissioned this church for the Jesuits in 1583. In 1590, with the work well advanced, the tower collapsed and destroyed the choir. The story goes that his officials, worried about the accounts, took it as a sign from heaven to stop spending. The duke replied that it was indeed a sign: the choir was too small for an archangel. He made it much longer, and the church, consecrated in 1597, outdid the Jesuits’ mother church in Rome in size and very nearly bankrupted the duchy.

2The mystery of the lake

Beneath the choir lies the Wittelsbach crypt. Here rests Ludwig II, the king of Neuschwanstein. On 8 June 1886, a medical report signed without anyone examining him declared him mentally ill; days later he was removed from the throne and confined at Berg Castle. On 13 June he went out for a walk with his psychiatrist, Bernhard von Gudden. That night, both men were found dead in the shallow waters of Lake Starnberg.

Suicide, accident, an escape gone wrong, murder? There is no conclusive proof for any version.

His heart is not here: as was the family custom, it was placed in an urn in the Chapel of Grace at Altötting.

3What to look for

• Saint Michael and the demon, in bronze, between the two doors.
• The statues of rulers on the façade; William V holds a model of the church.
• The stepped gable, crowned by Christ the Saviour.