Bavarian art town between Staffelsee and Murnauer Moos, shaped by Alps views and the Blaue Reiter painters.
Murnau am Staffelsee is a small Bavarian town at the foot of the Alps, about 45 minutes by train south of Munich. It sits between the Staffelsee lake and the Murnauer Moos, one of the largest intact raised bogs in Central Europe — the landscape is open, green, and framed by mountains in every direction.
The town is best known for its connection to the Blaue Reiter movement. Wassily Kandinsky and Gabriele Münter lived here from 1909 to 1914, and the Münter-Haus — the "Russians' House" — where they worked is now a small museum. The Schlossmuseum Murnau in the town castle has the world's largest public collection of Münter's work, alongside key Blaue Reiter paintings. Murnau's main street, the Obermarkt, is lined with colourful painted Baroque facades and is one of the prettiest town centres in Upper Bavaria.
From Murnau you can easily reach Garmisch-Partenkirchen and the Zugspitze (Germany's highest peak), Oberammergau with its Passion Play tradition, and the castles of Ludwig II at Neuschwanstein and Linderhof. The Staffelsee is good for swimming and boating in summer, and the Murnauer Moos is excellent walking country in spring and early summer when the bog orchids are in flower.
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Getting There
Murnau is directly connected to Munich by the Bayerische Oberlandbahn (BOB), with trains roughly every hour from Munich Hauptbahnhof. The journey takes about 45 minutes. The station is in the lower part of town, about ten minutes' walk from the Obermarkt and Schlossmuseum.
By car from Munich, take the A95 (Munich-Garmisch motorway) south and exit at Murnau. The drive is about 55 kilometres. Parking is available in the town centre, though spaces fill quickly in summer. From Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Murnau is 30 kilometres north on the B2.
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When to Go
Murnau is good year-round but peaks in summer and early autumn. July and August are warm enough for swimming in the Staffelsee and bring the most visitors from Munich. September and October offer cooler weather, fewer crowds, and the best visibility to the Alps — the Föhn wind that sweeps down from the mountains in autumn can make the mountains look impossibly close and sharp.
Spring is particularly good for the Murnauer Moos: May and June see the bog orchids and the wet meadow flowers at their best, and the Alpine peaks still carry snow above treeline. Winter is cold but manageable; the light on the snow-covered landscape has a particular quality that drew the Blaue Reiter painters here in every season.