Palais Lerchenfeld

Palais Lerchenfeld stands in Munich’s Altstadt-Lehel district, presenting a Rococo façade shaped by eighteenth-century craftsmanship. Its construction began around 1730 under architect Ignaz Anton Gunetzrhainer. Plaster ornament gathers around the central projection, where elaborate stucco gives the frontage its strongest visual focus. Johann Baptist Zimmermann is credited with this rich stucco decoration.

World War Two left much of the building in ruins, while the façade survived the destruction. Architect Erwin Schleich restored that surviving frontage in 1958. The building houses Munich’s Municipal Funeral Department, linking civic administration with historic architecture. Earlier changes took it through division and auction in 1751, followed by rebuilding for different uses. A soap factory and a confectionery occupied the premises among those later functions.

Above the portal, the Wessobrunner Madonna forms the façade’s most distinctive surviving detail. Plaster figures join the Madonna across the frontage, preserving Rococo decoration through the building’s layered history.