If you take a walk through the grounds of Nymphenburg Palace in Munich, Germany, you might come across the interesting sight of Magdalenenklause.

It was built in 1728 for Elector Max Emanuel by his court architect Josef Effner.

It is one of the earliest examples in Europe of a park building consciously designed as a ruin.

Built in the Italian style in the imitation of a hermitage, it contains a chapel and an apartment with rooms of monastic simplicity.

The hermitage was intended as a place for religious contemplation of the transitoriness of earthly lives.