The patron was King Ludwig I of Bavaria. The Ludwigskirche was a unique achievement of its time, the answer to Gärtner's quest for a style that could develop the artistic possibilities he believed were concealed in early medieval architecture. The mature solution was a basilica with transept and a rectangular choir, the street façade dominated by tall, elegant, twin towers; the parsonage and Gärtner's own house were connected to the entrance façade by round-arched arcades, giving a horizontal emphasis to the street front. Peter Cornelius provided choir and transept with monumental frescoes depicting the Christian creed, dominated by a gigantic Last Judgment (1839) on the choir wall above the high altar.