Munich: Viktualienmarkt (market)

View to the north

The buildings in this salt paper print reveal how old this photograph is. In the center of the picture is the Church of the Holy Spirit, before its westward expansion in 1885. Next to it on the right is the Fischerturm, a gate tower with a battlement and part of the second ring of city walls from the 14th century. It was demolished in 1891. Cut into the far right of the picture is the round Scheibling, a turret and also part of Munich's city fortifications until 1871. On the far left of the picture, the tower of the Old City Hall rises above the roofs. The tower dome seen here is still in its baroque appearance, which it has had since the 17th century. Only in 1862 it was rebuilt in neo-Gothic style, until it was destroyed in the Second World War.
Presumably, this view comes from the "Photographisches Album von München", which was photographed and published in 1861 by Georg Böttger (1821-1901) and, according to the publisher's announcement, also contains a view of the Viktualienmarkt. Böttger had specialized, among other things, in outdoor photography of landscapes and cities and had already published a series of eleven panoramic views of Munich in 1858, taken from the tower of St. Peter's Church.
With the shooting date 1861, this salt paper print is probably the oldest photograph in the collection of the Photothek of the Central Institute of Art History.