Alte Pinakothek

The paradox of the Alte Pinakothek is that a building designed to protect fragile paintings for centuries became, in the Second World War, a literal target—then returned to public life by deliberately leaving visible scars in its walls. You’re inside a museum that is older than most public galleries as we now understand them. Its very name—Alte Pinakothek, “Old Pinakothek”—points to the span of its collection, covering Old Master art from the fourteenth through the eighteenth centuries. And architecturally, the museum was conceived as something unusually forward-looking for its day: it was built to accommodate skylights that carried light into the display rooms, supporting a modern gallery concept at a time when many museums still felt castle-like and closed-off.

A gallery planned like an instrument

In 1826, King Ludwig I of Bavaria ordered architect Leo von Klenze to erect a new building for the Wittelsbach collection. The project wasn’t carried by royal command alone. Georg von Dillis, a gallery inspector and close confidant of Ludwig I, shaped the outcome through conservation requirements and practical experience with museum operations. Construction lasted from 1826 to 1836, and the museum opened in 1836 as a free-standing building that could hold its own claim to scale and ambition.