Herrenchiemsee and Frauenchiemsee

The Herrenchiemsee Festival is particularly committed to the genius loci, the unique character of its performance venues. As one of the most important cultural and historical locations in Germany, Herreninsel is far more than just the romantic backdrop for a world-famous royal palace. The Chiemsee islands are among the earliest documented settlement areas in the Bavarian Alpine foothills. Around 630, a monastery was built on Herrenchiemsee – one of the first north of the Alps. Around 770, Duke Tassilo III had two extensive monasteries built: a Benedictine nunnery on the Fraueninsel and a new building for the existing male monastery on the Herreninsel. The names of both places still reflect this monastic tradition today.
Both monasteries made history. The monks Cyril and Methodius set out from Herrenchiemsee to pursue the Christianisation of Eastern Europe. One of the first abbesses of Frauenchiemsee was Irmingard, the daughter of Ludwig the German, whose beatification also documents the central importance of the monastery for the culture of Old Bavaria.

Until the Napoleonic era, the diocese of Chiemsee dominated the region as a religious and artistic centre with an important musical tradition. In 1676, Lorenzo Sciasca created one of the first large Italian-style baroque churches north of the Alps, the Inseldom, which was destroyed in 1803. Finally, Ludwig II proved himself to be an ecologically-minded monarch by acquiring the island for the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1873, thus saving the ancient trees from being cut down at the last minute. The place made history once again in 1948, when the constitutional convention that gave Germany its democratic legal basis after the barbarity of the Nazi dictatorship met here.

When the monasteries were forcibly dissolved in 1803 in the course of secularisation, the fate of the two islands was extremely different.
One of the first artists’ colonies in Germany was founded on Frauenchiemsee in 1828. The monastery was reinstated and still exists today. Magnificent architectural monuments – including the Carolingian gatehouse and the Romanesque cathedral – bear witness to the continuity of twelve centuries of culture.
The Herreninsel, on the other hand, was deserted, destroyed and plundered until Ludwig II acquired it for the Kingdom of Bavaria and built his dream Versailles in the form of Herrenchiemsee Palace: a ‘fortress of solitude’, which the builder wanted no one but himself and his servants to enter.

Sights and attractions

Herreninsel

A French Baroque château in the middle of a Bavarian Chiemsee island. During the day a lively magnet for people from all over the world; in the evening, after the departure of the last steamer, a place of magical silence. In 1878 Ludwig II created, in the form of Herrenchiemsee, his brilliantly anachronistic replica of Versailles as the realization of a Baroque contradiction: the royal court as a sheep farm.

Fraueninsel

One of Germany’s first artist colonies was founded on Frauenchiemsee in 1828. The convent was reinstated and remains to this day. Grandiose architectural monuments, including the Carolingian Gatehouse and the Romanesque Minster, bear witness to the continuity of twelve hundred years of culture.

Chiemsee

With an area of more than 80 square kilometres, and a depth of more than 70 metres, Chiemsee is the largest lake in Bavaria, so to speak the Bavarian Sea. The lake takes its character from three islands: the Herreninsel with Herrenchiemsee Palace, the Fraueninsel with its convent, and the smaller Krautinsel. Already settled in prehistoric times, the islands bear traces of Celts and Romans, and with christianization in the 7th and 8th centuries, the lake became a centre of Christianity. Today one of the biggest attractions is Ludwig II’s palace, which, since his death in 1886, has been visited by people from all over the world.

Chiemgau

The countryside around Chiemsee is one of Europe’s most attractive holiday regions. Developed from ice-age moraine between the rivers Salzach and Inn, the Chiemgau offers everything which those in search of relaxation and enjoyment might desire, from alpine regions to a tranquil lake landscape. Numerous protected nature reserves and areas of natural beauty, and not least a ban on motorboats on Chiemsee, bear witness to the determination of the local people to harmonize tourism with nature. But it is not just winter sports and summer resorts that attract visitors: monasteries and convents, stately homes, museums, and not least the closeness to Salzburg make the Chiemgau a cultural region of the first rank.