THE OLD PALACES

In the center of Stuttgart's downtown area lies the city's oldest palace which, despite frequent destruction and structural alterations during its thousand-year history, has still retained its medieval character. Even today visitors still notice a difference in height between the squares surrounding the palace and the inner courtyard. This artificial raised area is evidence of the earliest castle of simple design, for which a hill was created around 941. It filled with water due to the damp subsoil. This water-surrounded castle protected a stud farm (Stutengarten) for breeding horses and was founded by Duke Luitolf von Schwaben, a son of King Otto I. (1)

After changing hands several times, the castle was passed on to the Counts of Württemberg in the 13th century. These decided, after their ancestral castle on Württemberg Mountain had been destroyed in 1311, to move to Stuttgart. As a result, Stuttgart was the residence of the Württemberg dynasty for six hundred years. As the center of the dukedom, the palace now experienced numerous expansions and additions. (2)

At first the mighty Main Hall (Dürnitzbau) was built with appartements on the upper floors and the large two-winged main hall on the ground floor, which served as the meeting and dining hall of the counts.

Under the sovereigns Count Eberhard im Bart, the first Württemberg duke, and Duke Ulrich von Württemberg the building activity in the Old Palace stagnated due to other tasks. Not until Duke Christoph was an attempt made beginning in 1533 to change the well-fortified castle into a representative palace:


A Hall of Knights (Rittersaal) was built in the Main Hall, as was the riding ramp, which lead up to the front of the courtyard. The archive extension with a terrace was erected and the spectacular Arcade Courtyard (Arkadenhof) was created with the four-wing complex. It was completed in 1562 and is one of the most unusual and original examples of German Renaissance architecture. The arcades served to make use of the residential rooms behind them and for festive courtly ceremony. (2)

With an oblong-shaped hall (Quersaal) and the choirs, the Palace Church (Schloßkirche), first designed purely as an auditorium and consecrated in 1562, initially seemed quite worldly. In 1572 Duke Ludwig had the net vault decorated with coats of arms put in and gave the room a sacral appearance with the tracery windows. Today it is the only preserved historical room of the Old Palace. Queen Olga and King Karl, their niece Wera, her husband Duke Wilhelm Eugen and their son Carl Eugen are buried in the crypt under the Palace Church. (2)

In the late 16th century Duke Friedrich I had eleven houses in front of the palace torn down and a Palace Square (Schloßplatz) built, which is today Schiller Square (Schillerplatz). The Court of Honor (Ehrenhof) of the palace, which is now open on all sides, was formed by the Chancellery (Kanzlei), the Prince's Building (Prinzenbau), the "Fruchtkasten" (where the annual grain tribute was paid) and the Cathedral (Stiftskirche).(3)

Up into the 16th century the palace was surrounded by a 7 to 8 meter deep moat, which was fed by the Nesenbach and inhabited by fish and water fowl. After being partially drained, the moat was used as a bear pit and (separated from this) for keeping fallow deer. The palace was reached via four bridges, which were torn down in 1777 when the moat was filled in. As a relict of medieval architecture it had become superfluous and "antiquated".

The residential palace of the Württemberg dukes was at times moved to Ludwigsburg in the 18th century and the New Palace (Neues Schloß) was built for Carl Eugen next to the Old Palace, which no longer met the sovereign's requirements for representation. The external appearance of the Old Palace remained virtually unchanged until the fire of 1931 and the bombing raids in 1944. From the end of the 19th century the palace had been used as a museum. As a result, its rebuilding, during which further existing features of the original building were lost, in the years between 1948 and 1970 also served the Württemberg State Museum (Württembergischen Landesmuseum), which is housed there.(2)

• PALACE HOME PAGE
• THE OLD PALACE
• AREA SURROUNDING THE OLD AND NEW PALACE
• FAMOUS PERSONS
• STORIES AND ANECDOTES
• THE OLD PALACE OVER THE CENTURIES
• MAPS OF THE PALACES
• THE PRUSSIAN UHLANEN REGIMENTS

Prepared by:
Timothy K. Vogel
163 Valleyview Road
Mooresville, NC 28117-4105
704-660-3931
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