Munich Spooky Old Town Walking Tour in German

The Frauenkirche and the Devil's footprint

The tour begins at 19:00 at the main entrance of the Frauenkirche, between the two brick towers that have been the symbol of Munich since the cathedral was completed in 1488. The guide starts with the most famous legend of the building: the Devil, who is said to have agreed to help the builder on condition that the church had no windows, stepped into the finished nave, saw none from the entrance and stamped his foot in triumph, only to discover the windows hidden behind the columns. The dark footprint in the floor tiles is still shown to visitors.

From the footprint the guide moves on to the real history behind the legend, the speed of the construction and the burials in and around the cathedral, before leaving the Frauenplatz with its mushroom-shaped fountain for the lanes of the northern Old Town. Even visitors who have seen the Frauenkirche by day find a spooky Munich tour gives the familiar towers a different mood after dark.

Kreuzviertel and Promenadeplatz

The Kreuzviertel is the north-western of the four historic quarters of the Old Town, once the district of monasteries, nobles and the salt trade. Its centre is Promenadeplatz, a long tree-lined square flanked by baroque palaces and grand hotels, which was the site of the Salzstadel, the city's salt warehouse. Elegant as it looks, it has a dark reputation: the guide tells of a cold-hearted miser whose ghost is said to wander the square at night and of a spirit in a pointed cap seen in the old cemetery nearby.

The guide also explains the quarter's role in the witch trials and heresy cases of past centuries, pointing out where accused men and women were held and where sentences were carried out. These stops take about 30 minutes and are where a Munich ghost walk turns from legend to documented history.

The Jungfernturm, tower of tortured souls

On Jungfernturmstraße the guide stops at the site of the Jungfernturm, a tower of the 15th-century city wall that was demolished in 1804. Its name, the maidens' tower, hides a grim story: the tower served as a prison and, according to the tales told in Munich for generations, as a place of torture whose screams were said to echo through the night. The guide separates what is documented from what was invented, and both are chilling.

Only a plaque and the line of the street recall the tower today, but the story is one of the most unsettling of the evening and the reason the walk is recommended for ages 12 and above. From here the route follows the course of the old wall toward the palace quarter.

Graggenau and the old Maxtor gate

The Graggenau is the north-eastern quarter of the Old Town, the aristocratic district where the Residenz, the vast palace of the Bavarian rulers, grew over four centuries from a moated castle into a complex of courtyards and gardens. The streets around it housed court officials and noble families, and the guide tells the legends attached to their houses and to the palace walls, including spirits said to appear in the courtyards.

At the site of the old Maxtor gate, one of the city gates that stood here until the 19th century, comes the story of its corpulent ghost, a figure of local lore who refuses to leave his post. The guide also points out the places of gruesome crimes and tragic fates in these quiet streets, which look very different once you know what happened in them.

Odeonsplatz, the end of the walk

The tour ends after about two hours at Odeonsplatz, the wide square at the northern edge of the Old Town framed by the yellow baroque Theatine Church, the arched Feldherrnhalle and the entrance to the Hofgarten. By night the floodlit facades make a dramatic backdrop for the final stories, which draw together the devils, heretics and the doomed met along the way.

The guide hands out the small gift from the tour and says goodbye at about 21:00. Odeonsplatz has its own U-Bahn station, and Marienplatz is a ten-minute walk south through the Old Town, so getting back to your hotel is easy. Many guests continue to a late dinner in the restaurants around the square.