SCHLOSS LUDWIGSBURG PALACE
Magnificent Royal Palace and Baroque Gardens
I
had heard that the Ludwigsburg Palace north of Stuttgart was impressive.
A tour and peek behind the curtains fortified that sentiment as one of
the best preserved royal palaces anywhere in Germany. There are larger
palaces to be sure, and certainly more important ones. In fact,
the
palace of Schloss Ludswigsburg lost most of its historical role over
two hundred years ago, which is the source of its unique position today
as a glimpse into regal court life of the pinnacle era of royal palaces.
The Ludwigsburg palace story is intimately tied to, not of its official
residents, but those who held sway over them, the mistress of a Duke
and foreign master of a King.
The great
impression one gets at Palace Ludwigsburg is its owners have simply
gone away
for the weekend and will return at any moment. Many
grand palaces one visits in Europe are empty mausoleums, great halls
of painted ceilings, private rooms of guilt walls, devoid of original
furnishings, turned into state art museums, or redecorated with replacement
furniture. The Ludwigsburg Palace remains much as its last official occupant
left it. The palace’s official life lasted for only about 100 years,
from the early 1700’s to the early 1800’s.
Duke
Eberhard Ludwig ascended to the ruling seat of Wurttemberg at the age
of 16 and built
a hunting lodge
palace in the country away from the court palace in Stuttgart. The
town of Ludwigsburg grew around his hunting
lodge. The duke was apparently a good commander the 30 Years War, but
was in less command at home. Duke Ludwig added structures to the palace
as a “gift” to his mistress, Wilhelmine von Grävenitz.
While Ludwig’s wife Elisabeth of Baden stayed in the old palace
in Stuttgart, the duke lived openly with "Die Grävenitz" at
Ludwigsburg. He did marry her once, but the marriage was dissolved and
they continued together while she was married to another. She had a great
influence over his government, a strong personality and tended to greet
official visitors in her negligee. Ludwig died without a male heir and
the palace went to a nephew, Carl Eugene,
who
also preferred
a mistress to his wife, and played a part in the story of Friedrich Schilller (see Schiller House Weimar).
The
Palace at Ludwigsburg illustrates three distinct styles and influences
of period. The original design was the of the ornate Baroque, expressing
the lust for life and excess, added later furnishings of are the more
elegant but busy Rococo, and in the new palace, the overlay of the more
stately and stiff Empire period, influenced by the shifts in taste from
the courts in France.
Friedrich the Fat and Napoleon
The
last influential resident of Ludwigsburg, Friedrich of Württemberg
also known as "Fat Friedrich”.
A
tall man of a growing girth commented
on by satirists and by the French Emperor Napoleon. Friedrich
became king when Wurttemberg was raised to a kingdom in 1806 during its
occupation by Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon’s influence on the palace
is felt both by the images he left of himself there, a bust and famous
needlepoint portrait which watches over the king’s thrown room.
Friedrich had no public mistresses, living in a more reserved time of
expected propriety.
His official image in portraits adorn the palace. Some of the most impressive
rooms are his and his queen’s private quarters. Note the queen’s
privy chair with attached chamber pot. She lived in the palace for another
14 years after her heavy hubby died until 1828, and that's how the place
remains today.
Several unique features
of the Ludwigsburg Palace which expresses the pure symmetrical balance
of early 18th Century architecture are the Baroque
Theater, the most complete theater of its kind with its original props
and effects equipment, still in use for concerts. The king’s chapel
with its private glassed-in royal box. The old chapel converted into
a meeting hall for the king’s hunting club, with the coats of arms
of its club members marking their seats. The public audience hall which
forms an even grander thrown room than the official one. A tour of the
palace also takes in the servants quarters without which a court could
not operate, showing a behind the curtains glimpse at the real workings
of a palace. Usually not on a tour of the palace is the portrait hall
with a series of paintings of the family heirs of increasing earlier
costume dating back to the late medieval.
Baroque Gardens at Ludwigsburg
Surrounding
the Palace of Schloss Ludwigsburg are the Baroque Gardens, requiring
a separate
admission. The gardens consist of formal French
style and casual English style, dotted with merry-go-rounds of the royal
age, an aviary and fanciful sculptures making up the Marchen (Fairy Tale)
Gardens. Separate from the main palace is the Favorite’s Palace,
where the king could “get away”. At the far end of the grounds,
the Favorite’s was primarily used for entertaining, hunting and
gambling. Tours of the Favorite's Palace in English are only available
on advance arrangement. Check out the wine cellar with the largest
wine barrel, until Heidelberg's surpassed it in a sort of wine war (see Heidelberg
Castle Wine Barrel). Also worth seeing are the Costume Museum
and collection of Royal Ceramics, If one asks what's the best palace
to see
in Germany
might
be, Schloss
Ludwigsburg
would be high on the list. © Bargain
Travel Europe
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Schloss
Ludwigsburg
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See Also:
HEIDELBERG CASTLE "THE BEAUTIFUL RUIN"
GIANT
WINE BARREL OF BAD DURKHEIM
PRINCE BISHOP'S PALACE - BRUCHSAL
