Old Castle: Stuttgart’s Renaissance Palace and Museum Complex
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.7
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- Germany
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Palace
On this page18 sections
History
Old Castle in Stuttgart, Germany, is a palace complex whose history reaches back to a medieval water castle and whose present form was largely created during the Renaissance. Archaeological evidence beneath the site points to settlement from the eighth century, while the earliest identifiable castle probably dates from the Staufer period in the late twelfth or early thirteenth century.
Early settlement and the first castle
A tradition connects an earlier stronghold on the site with Duke Liudolf of Swabia, who is said to have established a stud farm called “Stuotgarten” around 950. Archaeological excavations, however, had not found evidence for a tenth-century predecessor by 2012. Excavations carried out up to 2005 did reveal settlement remains beneath the southern part of the complex, including material dating back to the eighth century, together with the remains of an earlier castle.
This first archaeologically identifiable castle, known as Castle 1, was probably built during the second half of the twelfth or the first half of the thirteenth century, when the Staufers, a major medieval German ruling dynasty, held power. Its position appears to have been connected with the control and protection of an old north-south trading route through the Stuttgart valley. A road from Cannstatt joined the route immediately south of the castle before continuing southwest toward Tübingen, the Schönbuch, and Schaffhausen. Both routes were probably already in use during the Roman period.
Castle 1 was apparently badly damaged by flooding later in the thirteenth century. Its southern outer wall had been undermined, and sections of masonry had collapsed together as a connected structure. A successor was then constructed on a different alignment, creating the foundation for the late-medieval castle.
The Württemberg residence
Construction of Castle 2 began around 1300. The end of an oak beam near the base of its new wall was dated by dendrochronology, the study of annual growth rings in wood, to between 1292 and 1312. In the first half of the fourteenth century, the castle became the principal seat of the Counts of Württemberg and of the Württemberg Court Chamber, the institution that administered the ruling family’s financial and landed interests.
The medieval complex remained a water castle for several centuries. Deep surrounding moats protected it, and the ground around what is now Schillerplatz stood several metres lower than it does today. The moats were filled during the eighteenth century, ending the castle’s function and appearance as a water castle.
Renaissance transformation
From 1553, Dukes Christoph and Ludwig commissioned the conversion of the medieval fortress into a Renaissance palace. The work was directed by Aberlin Tretsch, assisted by the master builder Blasius Berwart, and continued through the sixteenth century, generally being dated to 1553 to 1578. The redevelopment changed the fourteenth-century main wing and added ducal living quarters on its upper floors.
The rebuilding also transformed the castle’s internal organization. About 60 percent of the earlier building fabric in the northwest part was demolished to create a new arcaded courtyard. The three-sided vaulted arcades began in 1557 and were intended to continue around the entire courtyard, which was designed as a tournament square. The complete plan was not carried out after the castle was politically downgraded. An archive building and a riding staircase leading to the upper floors were added on the garden side in 1558.
The Renaissance works raised the ground level by a full storey. On the northwest side, toward present-day Schillerplatz, the level rose by approximately 6 metres. On the southeast side, the Dürnitz, a large heated medieval hall used for communal and ceremonial purposes, was converted into a vast wine cellar that remained in use until the twentieth century. Raising the ground also helped protect the complex from flooding. The arcaded courtyard incorporated motifs of the early Italian Renaissance and later received Ludwig von Hofer’s equestrian statue of Eberhard im Bart.
War damage and later use
Part of Old Castle burned on the night of 21 to 22 December 1931. The Dürnitz building and both of its towers were largely destroyed. A reconstruction competition followed in 1932, and Paul Schmitthenner directed the rebuilding. Before that work was complete, the complex suffered severe damage during the Second World War. Fire destroyed much of the Württemberg State Museum’s ethnographic collection, including its craft-workshop rooms. Postwar rebuilding began in the mid-1960s and continued until 1971, again under Schmitthenner.
Old Castle now houses the Württemberg State Museum and the children’s museum Young Castle. The Castle Church remains a place of worship and a preaching location for the Protestant collegiate congregation, as well as a venue for weddings. A memorial to the German resistance fighter Claus Graf Stauffenberg, executed after the 20 July 1944 plot against Adolf Hitler, stands within the complex and is entered from the Karlsplatz side. The courtyard contains an equestrian monument to Count Eberhard V, who became Württemberg’s first duke in 1495 and made Stuttgart his residence.
Remains
Medieval archaeological remains
Castle 1
The earliest identifiable castle lay diagonally beneath the southern part of the present complex. Castle 1 had two outer walls and two ditches, together with parts of an internal structure. Its walls ran almost exactly north-south and have been traced for just under 30 metres. Archaeological disturbance beneath the present courtyard and toward the former moat by Karlsplatz makes its full north-south extent uncertain, while its east-west extent is unknown.
The internal construction measured approximately 11 metres and 6 metres in width up to the inner outer wall. The wider section used timber framing, with surviving sill beams. An eastern moat also belonged to the castle, although its relationship to the entire structure remains uncertain. Evidence of flood damage survives in the undermined southern wall and in collapsed masonry.
Castle 2
The successor castle had foundations substantially deeper than those of Castle 1. Its walls were about 3.6 metres thick and so massive that excavations did not reach the bottoms of their foundations. In the southeast part of the present castle, these medieval walls still stand and continue to form part of the building. In the northwest, they were removed centuries later to make way for the Renaissance palace.
Castle 2 was rotated by nearly 45 degrees in relation to its predecessor. Its side facing the flood-prone Nesenbach was consequently protected by a massive wall running parallel to the stream, rather than by the corner of a building. The late-medieval castle was enclosed by a deep moat, and its relationship with the lower surrounding ground was altered when the Renaissance rebuilding raised the site.
Renaissance palace and courtyard
Arcaded courtyard
The surviving courtyard is formed by three-sided vaulted arcades built from 1557 onward. It was planned as a tournament square and incorporates architectural motifs associated with the early Italian Renaissance. The arcades were meant to surround the whole courtyard, but construction stopped before the intended enclosure was complete. The courtyard also contains Ludwig von Hofer’s equestrian statue of Eberhard im Bart.
Main wing and Dürnitz
The sixteenth-century rebuilding extensively altered the medieval main wing and created upper-floor apartments for the dukes. An archive building and a riding staircase were added on the garden side in 1558. The former Dürnitz, once a large heated ceremonial hall, became a vast wine cellar. Its conversion formed part of the broader restructuring that raised the building levels and helped protect the palace from floodwater.
Castle Church
Church interior
The Castle Church occupies the southwest wing and was built between 1558 and 1562 by Aberlin Tretsch and Blasius Berwart as part of the new wings around the courtyard. It is a transverse church, arranged across the short axis rather than along a conventional lengthwise plan. The congregation enters at ground level from the arcaded courtyard, while the ducal apartments connected with a gallery running around the interior. The church was long regarded as the first Protestant church newly built in Württemberg.
Sem Schlör designed the altar and pulpit as centrally positioned features of equal importance, allowing them to be seen from all seating areas. The church originally had a plain barrel vault without ribs and windows without tracery. Ribs and tracery were added around 1580.
Alterations and organ
After church property was confiscated in 1806, Alexander Tritschler remodeled the building in a Neo-Gothic style and created the crypt beneath it. From 1812, the church temporarily served as a library and later as a court pharmacy, after court services moved to the Academy Church in the New Palace. Its interior was renovated in 1865, when it received a new organ by Eberhard Friedrich Walcker.
The present organ was built in 1980 by the Stuttgart organ builder Diethelm Berner. It has 20 stops, including nine retained from Walcker’s earlier instrument, and is arranged over two manuals and a pedal.
Crypt and memorials
Royal crypt
The crypt beneath the Castle Church contains the burials of King Charles I and Queen Olga of Württemberg, together with Duke Wilhelm Eugen, Duchess Wera, and their son Carl Eugen.
Stauffenberg memorial
The memorial to Claus Graf Stauffenberg is located within the castle complex and has its entrance on the Karlsplatz side. It commemorates the German resistance fighter who was executed after the failed 20 July 1944 plot against Adolf Hitler.
