This hall is the oldest room of the Residenz München. 66 metres long, it is the largest and most lavish Renaissance interior north of the Alps. Duke Albrecht V had it built from 1568 to 1571 for his collection of antique sculptures. These antiquities gave the room its name "Antiquarium".
From 1581 to 1600 Albrecht V's successors, Duke Wilhelm V and his son Maximilian I, transformed the Antiquarium into a banqueting hall. They lowered the floor, erected a dais with a balustrade at one end and installed a fireplace.The wall and ceiling paintings in the Antiquarium date from its remodelling as a banqueting hall. The 16 pictures along the top of the vault are the work of the Munich court painter Peter Candid and show allegories of Fame and Virtue in the form of seated female figures.