Marienplatz & Neues Rathaus

Every day at 11am, hundreds of tourists crane their necks at exactly the same spot to watch copper figures joust, twirl, and re-enact a royal wedding from 1568. The Glockenspiel in the tower of the Neues Rathaus is the largest in Germany and the fourth-largest in Europe, with 43 bells and 32 life-sized figures putting on a twelve-minute show that hasn't gotten old since 1908. What most visitors miss is the 9pm performance, when a night watchman and guardian angel tuck the Münchner Kindl — Munich's child monk mascot — into bed while Brahms' lullaby plays from the tower.

The New Town Hall itself is a neo-Gothic fever dream designed by Georg von Hauberrisser, who won the competition at just twenty-five years old. Construction dragged on from 1867 to 1909, expanding three times because the city kept running out of office space. The facade stretches nearly 100 metres across the north side of Marienplatz, bristling with gargoyles, saints, and Bavarian rulers. A dragon clings to one corner — look for it near the left side of the building.

Marienplatz has been Munich's central square since 1158, when Henry the Lion founded the city by rerouting the salt trade across his new bridge over the Isar. The golden Mariensäule column in the centre was erected in 1638 to celebrate the city surviving both the Swedish invasion and the plague — though "surviving" is generous, given how much destruction came first. The four warrior cherubs at the base are fighting a lion (war), a dragon (hunger), a serpent (heresy), and a basilisk (plague).

At 9pm on most nights, Marienplatz empties out and the Glockenspiel plays its lullaby to almost no one. It's the best-kept secret performance in Munich — the whole square to yourself, with a medieval tower singing a child to sleep.