Viktualienmarkt: how to visit Munich's market

There is no common opening time. The stalls open Monday to Saturday at different times and the city only sets minimum trading hours: from April to October, Monday to Friday, 10 am to 6 pm; from November to March, Monday to Friday, 10 am to 5 pm; and on Saturdays, all year, 10 am to 3 pm. Some traders open earlier or stay later, and what counts is the timetable posted at each stall.

Two details are worth knowing. The traders work a five-day week, so a particular stall may be closed on a weekday. And the stalls that trade under umbrellas may close early in bad weather. There is no market on Sundays, although some bars or restaurants on the site may keep their own hours.

What began as a farmers' market is now a food market with regional, seasonal and international produce. Fruit and vegetables are the most common, and around them are stalls with meat, game, poultry, fish, cheese and dairy, bread, pastries and spices, plus flowers, plants, honey, tea and wine.

To eat on the go there are coffee stands, snack stalls and places serving soups, Brotzeit, pastries or hot dishes. Brotzeit is the typical Bavarian cold meal of bread with cold cuts or cheese, and you are allowed to bring your own to the market's beer garden.

In the middle of the stalls is the Viktualienmarkt beer garden. It has one particularity: it serves beer from Munich's six big breweries in rotation, and the brand changes roughly every five to six weeks. The one currently on tap is shown at the bar.

You can bring your own food; drinks are bought there. You can also buy food at the market stalls or in the eateries on the site. Whether it is open depends on the weather and on each business's hours.

The blue and white maypole can be seen from afar and is the usual meeting point. The first one was put up on 4 May 1962 at the suggestion of Albert Bayerle, then Munich's third mayor, and it has been renewed every few years since.

Around the market are six fountains with figures of Munich folk singers, actors and comedians: Karl Valentin, Liesl Karlstadt, Ida Schumacher, Elise Aulinger, Weiß Ferdl and Roider Jackl. The Karl Valentin figure, from 1953, is partly made from the bronze of a Siegestor lion damaged in the Second World War. On the first Friday of August, at the Brunnenfest, the fountains are decorated with flowers and there are free performances.

The market has been on this site since 1807, when a royal decree by Maximilian I Joseph moved part of the market from today's Marienplatz to the land between the Church of the Holy Spirit (Heilig-Geist-Kirche) and Frauenstraße. The site was extended between 1823 and 1829, and halls, pavilions and permanent stalls were added over time.

Since 2014, the Viktualienmarkt tradition has been listed in Bavaria's inventory of intangible cultural heritage.

The market is about 400 metres from Marienplatz, five minutes on foot, so it fits naturally into any walk around the old town. If you only have a short time, come in the morning, when it is calmer; if you want to eat there, at midday you will find everything in full swing, but also more people.

The site is open-air with paved paths. If you are using a wheelchair or pushing a buggy, bear in mind that access to each stall and eatery varies, and check the status of the lifts at Marienplatz station if you arrive by S-Bahn or U-Bahn.

The Viktualienmarkt is a stop for eating and looking. The rest of the old town, its squares, its churches and the stories behind each one, makes much more sense when someone tells you about it as you walk.

The app has an audio guide to the old town recorded by a local guide born in Munich: ten stops you walk at your own pace, with her voice in your ear. It is narrated in Spanish. You buy it once, download it to your phone and it works offline, with no group and no fixed time.