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The Viktualienmarkt

Stalls at the Viktualienmarkt
Photograph by Dietmar Rabich, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

A permanent food market a minute from Marienplatz — free to walk, expensive to shop, and with a beer garden in the middle that rotates its brewery.

What it costs

Free to walk through. The produce is good and is priced for a city-centre market rather than a supermarket; this is not where locals do a weekly shop.

The beer garden in the middle is the reason to linger. It rotates between Munich’s six big breweries through the year, and the self-service tables allow you to bring your own food — buy it from the stalls around you.

The Viktualienmarkt square
Photograph by Wikiolo, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

When to go

Closed on Sundays and on public holidays, like almost all German retail. Mornings are when it functions as a market; afternoons are when it functions as a beer garden.

Getting there

A minute’s walk south of Marienplatz.

The maypole at the Viktualienmarkt
Photograph by Jebulon, Wikimedia Commons, CC0

If you only have an hour

Walk the stalls, buy something to eat, and take it to the beer garden in the middle — that is exactly what the self-service tables are for. Note which brewery is pouring; it changes through the year.

What people get wrong

The maypole is not decoration: the panels on it show the trades of the district, and the tradition of neighbouring villages stealing each other’s poles is real and still enforced with ransom in beer. The market has been here since 1807, when it outgrew Marienplatz.

St Peter's tower above the Viktualienmarkt
Photograph by Flocci Nivis, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0

Nearby

Ticketing arrangements and opening patterns as published for 2026 and checked on 4 September 2026. These change without much warning — confirm with the site itself before you travel. More sights, and how they fit together, in Landmarks & Sights.