Their College is as magnificent as their Church, there can be nothing finer; and I could not help thinking the Outside of it exceeded the Electoral Palace. In the Inside there are great Rooms, which serve as Classes for the Scholars that come to study with them.
The Elector’s Palace deserves a diligent View, for it may compare with the Palaces of the most powerful Sovereigns; and I think that, excepting the Palace of the Tuileries, there’s none so big. Yet for all this it has one Defect, common to the Palaces of all Sovereigns, it having been built at several Times, and being by Consequence irregular. The first Time I saw it, I own to you that I was disgusted at this Irregularity; and that it fell vastly short of the Idea I had conceiv’d of the Building from what I had read of it in the Relations publish’d by Travellers.
Of all the Parts of the Electoral Palace, there’s not one that is more magnificent than that which is commonly call’d the Emperor’s Apartment: The principal Room in it is a Hall, which is
118 Feet long, and 52 broad, and may be reckon’d a complete Piece of Work; ’tis adorn’d with fine Paintings, representing sacred and profane History, which are rang’d in exact Order, one over-against the other; and under each of the historical Passages there are Latin Verses explaining the Subject: The Chimney-piece is as magnificent as the rest of the Apartment; on the Top of it there’s the Statue of Porphyry, of admirable Workmanship, representing Virtue, holding a Spear in her Right Hand, and a Branch of gilt Palm in her Left. The Ceiling is adorn’d with gilt Compartments, and with Paintings of a noble Design.
Going out of the great Hall, we pass thro’ a very spacious Antichamber into the Hall of Audience, which is very much ornamented, as is all the rest. ’Tis there that the Electors give Audience to the foreign Ministers, and there are Eight great Compartments, shewing the different manners after which the foreign Princes give Audience to Ambassadors. There are other Pictures representing the Histories of several Judgments pass’d by Sovereigns, that have administer’d Justice in Person; and these Pictures are accompany’d with Hieroglyphics, Emblems and Devices suitable to the Subject.
The long Gallery is very magnificent, both for its Extent and for the Pieces it contains. ’Tis adorn’d with Basso Relievo’s of a noble Design, and with costly Pictures, among which are the Effigies and Names of 36 Princes, the Predecessors of the present Elector. There are also very fine Maps of the several Provinces, Cities and Appendages of his Electoral Highness’s Dominions. There’s another Gallery not quite so big indeed, but as finely adorn’d, and especially
with very large Pictures, which represent the Histories of the Princes and Princesses of the Family of Bavaria. The Stair-case which leads to the grand Apartment I just now mention’d, is answerable to all the rest in Magnificence, there being nothing to be seen all about it but marble and Gold.
The Apartment which the Elector commonly resides in is very spacious, but irregular. I thought the Chambers and Closets a little too dark. The whole is adorn’d with rich Ceilings and magnificent Tapestries. The Electoress’s Apartment communicates with the Elector’s by a private Gallery. All the Princes and Princesses are equally well lodg’d, tho’ the Chambers of the Apartments are a little too small.
The great Chapel is very fine, and would be much more so, if it was more lightsome. The Electoress has one, which joins to her Apartment, but is not near so large as the former, and has the same Fault; tho’ otherwise ’tis a notable Piece of Building, and contains extraordinary Wealth.
The Garden of the Electoral Palace is not of the modern Taste. Round the one half of it there’s a grand Piazza, adorn’d with Pictures, representing the several Histories of the Princes of the Bavarian Family, which Pictures, I am told, were the Model for the Hangings in the Elector’s Wardrobe. At the End of this Piazza there’s a very fine House, the lower Parts of which serve as a Greenhouse for the Orange Trees. In the upper Part there are very commodious Apartments; where, in the Summertime, the Elector has a Drawing-Room. Near this Orangery there’s a Sort of Menagery, in which are kept Lyons and other wild Beasts.