«Eugène de Beauharnais - From Viceroy of Italy to Asylum Seeker»

25 April to 27 October 2024

Eugène Rose de Beauharnais died in Munich 200 years ago, at half past three on 21 February 1824. His body was laid out for three days on the ground floor of his city palace on Odeonsplatz. On 25 February, he was buried in the princely crypt of St Michael‘s Church.

His widow, Auguste Amalie, had a magnificent tomb created by the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen. It depicts Eugène as an ancient warrior, surrounded by two angels on the right and on the left by the muse Clio, who is writing down his (heroic) deeds. It was placed in the nave on 21 February 1830, commemorating the 6th death anniversary of the Prince.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who had met Eugène in Marienbad six months before he died, wrote following statement about him: He was one of those great characters that are becoming increasingly rare, and the world has once again lost another important person. I knew him personally; it was only last summer that I met him in Marienbad. He was a handsome man aged forty-two, but he seemed older, and that was not surprising, considering all that he had endured and the way his life was filled with one campaign and great deed following one another. He shared a project of his with me in Marienbad,
and we had many discussions about its implementation. He was planning to connect the Rhine with the Danube by creating a canal. It was a huge undertaking, considering the reluctant location. But to someone who served under Napoleon and shook the world with him, nothing seemed impossible.

Napoleon I said about his own life: Quel roman que ma vie! What a novel my life was! Eugène could have said the same about himself.

To mark the 200th anniversary of Eugène de Beauharnais‘ death, our special exhibition provides an overview of his life and work as well as of the few traces he left behind in our region. This mainly concerns his Eugensberg Castle above Mannenbach on Untersee, which is only a stone‘s throw away from Arenenberg Castle. After the Congress of Vienna (1814/15), the centre of his life was in Bavaria, more precisely in Munich, Ismaning and Eichstätt.