Palace by Leo von Klenze , builder of the original palace
Eugène de Beauharnais, the brother-in-law of the later King
Ludwig I of Bavaria and the stepson of
Napoleon, commissioned
Leo von Klenze to build a "suburban city palace". Constructed between 1817 and 1821 at a cost of 770,000
guilders (the entire construction budget for Bavaria in 1819), it was the largest palace of the era, with more than 250 rooms including a ballroom, a theatre, a billiard room, an art gallery, and a chapel, plus a number of outbuildings extending for over down what is now Kardinal-Döpfner-Straße. It was the first building on the
Ludwigstraße. Klenze intended it to serve as a benchmark for the new boulevard. He chose the Italian
neo-Renaissance style, modelling the building on the
Palazzo Farnese in Rome. He placed eagles over the windows on the first floor as in one of Napoleon's palaces. and until the Nazi
seizure of power early in 1933, it was used by the Bavarian royal family, the
House of Wittelsbach. Prince
Ludwig, later Ludwig III, married
Maria Theresia, Archduchess of Austria-Este in 1868 and it was their first home. Their son Prince
Rupprecht was born here in 1869 and was baptised in the palace chapel on May 20, 1869. After the end of the monarchy in Bavaria in 1918, the outbuildings were converted into shops and a garage. lived there until 1939 in a small apartment, sometimes using the reception rooms for events. However, the interior layout has not been reproduced, although the ministry reception rooms and the office of the State Minister of Finance are located on the first floor, the
bel étage. What little survived of the ornate interior of the former building is now in
Nymphenburg Palace. The Alexander frieze by
Bertel Thorvaldsen survives only in a copy which is now in the foyer of the Herkulessaal (Hercules Hall), a post-war concert hall in the
Residenz. In 1958 the architect and preservationist
Erwin Schleich had suggested reconstructing the destroyed
Odeon concert hall on the site of the Palais Leuchtenberg, since the concert hall could not be rebuilt on its original site. Although this plan had some support, it was not carried out. ==References==