The two buildings on Königsplatz in Munich rank among the leading international museums for antique art. Here Greek, Roman and Etruscan masterpieces can be encountered in a quality and abundance that can otherwise be found in only very few places in the world – in Berlin, Paris, London or New York.

The setting in which these unique collections are presented is also exceptional. All of the neo-classical buildings on Königsplatz are the result of the initiative of the Bavarian King Ludwig I (1786–1868). Between 1816 and 1830, Leo von Klenze created the Glyptothek on the north side of the Kunstareal, with its portico resting on Ionic columns. From 1838 to 1848, Georg Friedrich Ziebland constructed the building to the south with its Corinthian façade, which today houses the collections of antiquities. The architectural ensemble was completed with the Propylaea on the west side of the square, which was constructed again by Klenze between 1846 and 1860 in Doric order, modelled on the classical gate to the Athenian Acropolis from the 5th century BC. All three buildings – the Glyptothek, the Collections of Antiquities and the Propylaea – were richly decorated with reliefs and sculptures, quite in keeping with the antique style.

A visit to the museums on Königsplatz provides the unique opportunity to enjoy ancient masterpieces in an architectural setting that arose as a result of the fascination with classical art and culture of the European Neoclassicism in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The Collections of Antiquities and the Glyptothek thus form the historic nucleus of Munich's Kunstareal, which was extended already under Ludwig I in the form of the Old and the New Pinakothek.