This avenue is the epitome of luxurious shopping. Only the most expensive of top brand names have settled here, together with exclusive jewelers, famous galleries and wonderful cafés. Vanity was naturally one of the factors involved when King Maximilian II decided in 1850 to have a grand avenue laid out here bearing his name. There wasmore to it, however: His idea was the realization of a brand new architectural style for the avenue’s design, the “Maximilian style”. Maximilianstrasse begins at Max-Joseph-Platz, at the level of the Residenz and the Opera.

In the specialmix of themagnificent shop façades, you will find a wealth of styles from Gothic Tudor to Italian Renaissance and unique architecture was Friedrich Bürklein, who for the first time used glass and concrete in construction. Look towards the east and you will behold a scenery of theatrical proportions. At the end of the street, reigning over everything, is the “Maximilianeum” – the Bavarian version of the Acropolis. That is how Maximilian II wanted his city to be seen, namely as a cultural “Athens on the Isar”. And here, too, Maximilianstrasse continues to have a special connotation, for it is not only a most luxurious shopping strip, but also the city’s cultural focus.

Recently, and with great pomp and ceremony, the Maximilianhöfe passage was opened at the corner of Alfons-Goppel-Strasse. Turn into the broad entrance in the middle of the Bürklein house. In the rear area, historical and modern styles have been cleverly joined using glass and metal. The gigantic columned room with tuff pillars and a cross vault is truly spectacular. Here you can indulge in the most diverse shopping and eating, and in sunny weather you can do some day-dreaming.