New Palace: The Former Ducal and Royal Residence in Stuttgart
Site at a Glance
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- 4.6
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- Medium
- Country
- Germany
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- German, Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Palace
On this page15 sections
History
The New Palace is an eighteenth-century Baroque palace in Stuttgart, Germany, built for the dukes and later kings of Württemberg. Duke Carl Eugen commissioned it in 1746 to replace the Renaissance Old Castle and return the ducal residence and political center to Stuttgart after the court had moved to Ludwigsburg.
A New Ducal Residence
Carl Eugen became duke in 1737, when he was nine years old. He was educated at the court of Frederick II of Prussia while Württemberg was governed by administrators, and returned to Stuttgart in 1744 at the age of sixteen. The Württemberg estates supported the return of the residence because they expected it to restore political and economic influence to the city.
The young duke required a residence suited to his household and rank. Johann Christoph David von Leger proposed enlarging the Old Castle, while Leopoldo Retti, Johann Balthasar Neumann, Alessandro Galli da Bibiena, and Maurizio Pedetti submitted designs for a new palace. Carl Eugen selected Retti’s proposal on 6 May 1746.
The cornerstone was laid in the garden wing on 3 September 1746. Retti designed the palace, but Johann Christoph David von Leger supervised the initial construction because Retti was working in Ansbach until 1748. The principal central block, known as the Corps de Logis, and the garden wing were externally complete by 1749. Interior work in the garden wing began in 1750.
Retti died in Stuttgart on 18 September 1751 from an unknown illness. His friend Philippe de La Guêpière, a Parisian architect, then directed the project. La Guêpière continued the palace in the manner of contemporary French architecture, including the grand formal language associated with Versailles. The city wing was completed during the early to mid-1750s, while the portico and dome over the Marble Hall were finished between 1758 and 1760.
Fire, Interruption, and Completion
On the night of 13 to 14 November 1762, a fire destroyed the rear part and interior of the garden wing, including La Guêpière’s interior decoration. Work shifted to the city wing, where Carl Eugen held his birthday celebrations on 11 February 1763. This was the first major event held in the palace.
An attempt to rebuild the garden wing failed as costs increased, finances tightened, and Carl Eugen’s interest declined. Disputes over expenditure brought construction to a halt in 1764, and the duke moved his residence back to Ludwigsburg. La Guêpière left the Württemberg court in 1768 and returned to Paris.
Carl Eugen returned to Stuttgart in 1775 and commissioned Reinhard Heinrich Ferdinand Fischer to repair parts of the palace. During a visit by the future Russian emperor Paul I and his wife, Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg, Nicolas Guibal painted a ceiling fresco in the Marble Hall. By the end of Carl Eugen’s life in 1793, much of the palace had been rebuilt. The city wing was fully furnished in 1789, and the garden wing was completed in 1791, although work on other areas continued.
Under Duke Friedrich II Eugen, Nikolaus Friedrich von Thouret took over the project and completed the palace in 1807. Napoleon Bonaparte visited in 1806. In 1817, Thouret redecorated rooms in the Red Marble Hall for the visit of Emperor Alexander I of Russia.
The Royal Residence
Württemberg became a kingdom in 1806, and the palace was adapted from a ducal residence into a royal one. After King Friedrich I died in 1816, King Wilhelm I moved into the New Palace. Giovanni Salucci and later his pupil Ferdinand Gabriel directed alterations, including the Grey Marble Hall and Yellow Marble Hall in 1836.
The court painter Joseph Anton von Gegenbaur created three fresco rooms beside the ground-floor staircase. The paintings, made in 1840 to 1841 and 1852 to 1854, depict episodes from the history of the Duchy and Kingdom of Württemberg. Under King Karl I and Queen Olga, Joseph von Egle carried out only minor changes, mainly in the royal living quarters.
King Wilhelm II abandoned the palace as a residence and used it mainly for representation. Parts of the building opened to the public during this period. From 1906, and more extensively from 1911, weather-damaged and unstable attic statues were replaced with copies, including concrete casts made in Ulm.
Destruction and Reconstruction
Wilhelm II abdicated on 30 November 1918, after which the palace became state property. In 1919, the German Foreign Institute occupied the ground floor and part of the first floor of the garden wing as offices and exhibition rooms. The Stuttgart police used parts of the first and second floors. During the early 1920s, rooms were converted into a museum for the former royal Kunstkammer, a princely collection of artworks, curiosities, and historically valued objects, as well as a majolica collection and former royal living quarters.
After the German Foreign Institute moved out in 1928, unused areas became military and antiquities museums. The police had moved out in 1926, allowing the second floor to accommodate antiquities-collection and historic-preservation offices. During the National Socialist period, an air-raid command bunker was installed in the city wing. It was demolished in 1958. From 1950 to 1958, a restaurant operated in the lower cellars of the ruined west wing, with room for about 400 guests and a beer garden for approximately 350.
Allied air raids on 21 February and 2 March 1944 almost completely destroyed the palace. Explosive bombs struck the building and fire consumed its interiors, leaving the facades standing. The remaining structure was nearly demolished for a hotel, but protests by citizens and preservationists led the Baden-Württemberg parliament to approve an external reconstruction in 1957 by a majority of one vote.
Horst Linde directed reconstruction from 1958 to 1964. The exterior was rebuilt, while only part of the Baroque interiors in the Corps de Logis was recreated. The restored palace became a government building for Baden-Württemberg. The Corps de Logis was used for representative purposes by the State Ministry, and the side wings initially housed the Ministries of Culture and Finance. The Ministry of Culture moved out in early 2012. The building now houses the Baden-Württemberg Ministries of Finance and Economic Affairs, together with parts of the Landesmuseum Württemberg. The basement contains the Roman Lapidarium, a display of ancient stone monuments and fragments belonging to the Landesmuseum Württemberg.
Remains
The New Palace is a symmetrical, three-wing Baroque complex on Stuttgart’s Schlossplatz. Its horseshoe-shaped plan opens toward the square, with the garden wing on the left beside the palace garden and the city wing on the right along the Planie. Four corner blocks extend the main and side wings and create narrow open spaces behind the side wings. The three wings enclose a ceremonial courtyard measuring approximately 90 metres on each side. Including the corner blocks, the palace is about 130 metres long along the main wing and 110 metres wide, excluding the projecting structure on the former academy side.
Plan and Exterior Construction
The palace has two full storeys, a half-storey formed either as a continuous-facade mezzanine or a mansard storey, and an attic level. Developed roof sections are crowned by balustrades and attic statues, while recessed parts end in mansard roofs. The roofs include gabled and hipped forms. A curved dome surmounts the main gable, and a pyramid roof crowns the garden gable.
The exterior walls are built of reed sandstone. The principal facades facing Schlossplatz have natural-stone surfaces, strong architectural articulation, and extensive sculpture. Secondary facades are partly plastered and more simply ornamented. The garden-side central projection is faced in natural stone and carries a sculptural gable crown. The former academy side is more austere because it was treated as a rear facade facing the former military academy. Horizontal cornices encircle the building, while pilasters and lesenes provide vertical divisions.
Eighteen projecting sections, or risalits, interrupt the straight facades. The central projections of the main and garden gables extend by one window axis. Larger central projections on the Planie and academy sides are two and three axes deep. Other risalits frame secondary portals or extend only slightly from the walls.
Courtyard and Garden Facades
On the ceremonial-courtyard side, the three-axis central projection of the main wing is connected by a convex axis to nine-axis side sections. The composition is emphasized by the main gable, curved dome, and one-storey portico. The portico forms a covered carriage ramp and supports a balcony on the principal floor. The side wings have six-axis end projections toward Schlossplatz and four-axis central projections flanked by seven-axis recessed sections. Their projections end in mezzanines with balustrades and roof statues, while the recessed areas have mansard storeys.
The garden facade has a three-axis central projection joined by angled axes to eight-axis side sections and then to the corner blocks. The central projection is faced with natural stone, while the other surfaces are lightly plastered. The three-axis central projection of the Planie facade is two axes deep and is joined to seven-axis side sections by a rounded quarter-tower.
The academy facade has a central structure three axes wide and four axes deep, preceded by an exterior stair with two flights. Its pale yellow-pink plaster is articulated by narrow and banded lesenes. A historic relief beneath the stair contains a ducal coat of arms in a cartouche, Württemberg stags’ antlers, and fields representing the Duchy of Teck, the Imperial Storm Flag, the County of Mömpelgard, and the Lordship of Heidenheim. Military insignia recall the former military academy that preceded the Hohe Karlsschule.
Gables and Portico
Main Gable
The main gable faces the ceremonial courtyard. Domenico Ferretti produced its sculptural decoration between 1748 and 1753, following a program devised for Carl Eugen by Georg Bernhard Bilfinger and Leopoldo Retti. The triangular field contains a relief of the Württemberg arms. Above it stands Bona Fama, the winged Roman personification of fame, on a globe and blowing a trumpet. Gloria and Superioritas flank her. Other figures include Minerva, Mars, Fortitudo, Justitia, Prudentia, and Temperantia, personifying wisdom, war, courage, justice, prudence, and moderation. The river gods Neckar and Rems represent Württemberg, with Neckar holding a fish and Rems an oar.
The heraldic relief places the Württemberg arms in a pear-shaped cartouche. It was originally crowned by a ducal hat and later by a royal crown. The central shield bears three stags’ antlers and three lions, together with additional fields representing Württemberg territories. Minerva carries a lance and shield, while Mars reaches toward a quiver. Putti, military equipment, palms, and a bound prisoner accompany the relief, whose repairs remain visibly marked by white plaster.
Garden Gable
The garden gable faces the palace garden and presents an allegory of nature through the seasons. Apollo crowns the composition with a bow and arrow, with Ceres on his left and Bacchus on his right. The triangular relief shows Flora, the Roman goddess associated with flowering and youth, floating above a globe and accompanied by putti representing the seasons. Ceres is linked with spring and agriculture, Bacchus with winter and wine, while putti carrying grain and fruit represent summer and autumn. Other putti handle flowers and grain, accompany a satyr, or carry grapes.
Portico and Dome
The portico’s ceiling rests on four pier-supported basket arches, and the front piers are faced with four paired columns. Six trophies and several pairs of putti decorate the balcony balustrade. The figures play with military equipment and were probably made by Domenico Ferretti between 1748 and 1753.
The central dome originally carried a gilded ducal hat. Under King Friedrich, this was replaced by a gilded royal crown resting on a cushion and encircled by a chain bearing the Order of the Golden Eagle. The dome also displayed the initials CC for Carl Eugen and later FR for Friedrich, together with Württemberg heraldic motifs. The dome was destroyed during the Second World War. Reconstruction substituted a small belvedere and flagpole for the crown, omitted the emblems, and restored the balustrade in grey without the heraldic symbols and initials.
Attic Sculpture and Interior Rooms
The roofline carries 59 attic statues, some of them copies. Four stand on each of the two Schlossplatz end projections, five on each side-wing end projection, four on each side-wing central projection, and sixteen on each side of the main-wing gable. Their subjects include virtues, occupations, government, military affairs, agriculture, science, and the arts. The named figures include Poetry, Teaching, Research, Military Science, Agriculture, Shepherding, Viticulture, Hunting, Smithing, Printing, Fishing, Unity, Peace, Good Order, Truth, Princely Glory, Valor, Prudence, Fortitudo, Prisoners, Gloria, Bona Fama, Superioritas, Justitia, Neckar, Rems, Temperantia, Generosity, Vigilance, Clemency, Hercules, Play, Military Affairs, Art and Science, Rule, Music, Sculpture, and Architecture. Trophies combine armor, helmets, weapons, flags, books, tools, globes, shields, garlands, musical instruments, and architectural implements.
The central pavilion of the Corps de Logis contains the Marble Hall, which received its dome and portico during the eighteenth-century construction. Nicolas Guibal’s ceiling fresco dates from 1775. Other principal interiors include the White Hall, Red Marble Hall, Grey Marble Hall, Yellow Marble Hall, Mirror Gallery, grand staircase, representative apartments, and former royal apartments. The Marble Hall and staircase are lined with Böttinger marble.
Three fresco rooms beside the ground-floor staircase contain scenes from the history of the Duchy and Kingdom of Württemberg. Joseph Anton von Gegenbaur painted them in 1840 to 1841 and 1852 to 1854.
Courtyard Works and Lapidarium
Beside the portico stand two groups showing Hercules and Minerva by Pierre François Lejeune. Near the entrance to the ceremonial courtyard are groups of Württemberg’s heraldic stag and lion by Antonio Isopi. Historic lanterns and candelabra with milky-glass hexagonal lamps are also associated with the palace.
The Roman Lapidarium occupies the basement of the city wing. In front of it are a Roman relief showing two men shaking hands, a modern sandstone block bearing a welcome inscription, and a reproduction of the Roman Jupiter-Giant Column from Hausen an der Zaber.
Academy Fountain
Behind the academy facade is a fountain with an octagonal basin, a pillar-like central shaft, and four lions that send water toward the four cardinal directions. The shaft carries an eagle and four heraldic shields bearing the Württemberg arms and Friedrich’s monogram, FR. Chains bearing the Order of the Golden Eagle and pairs of dolphins associated with Poseidon decorate the shaft. Most sculptural elements apart from the lions are finished in gold bronze. An identical fountain stands in the courtyard of Ludwigsburg Palace.
