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former residence of the dukes and kings of Württemberg
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Ludwigsburg Palace, nicknamed the "Versailles of Swabia", is a 452-room palace complex of 18 buildings located in Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Its total area, including the gardens, is 32 ha (79 acres) – the largest palatial estate in the country. The palace has four wings: the northern wing, the Alter Hauptbau, is the oldest and was used as a residence of the Duke of Württemberg; the east and west wings were used for court purposes and housing guests and courtiers; the southern wing, the Neuer Hauptbau, was built to house more court functions and was later used as a residence.
Eberhard Louis, Duke of Württemberg, appointed Philipp Joseph Jenisch to direct the work, and construction began in 1704. In 1707, Jenisch was replaced by Johann Friedrich Nette, who completed most of the palace and surrounding gardens. Nette died in 1714, and Donato Giuseppe Frisoni finished much of the palace façades. In the final year of construction, Eberhard Louis died, and the Neue Hauptbau's interiors were left incomplete. Charles Eugene's court architect, Philippe de La Guêpière, completed and refurbished parts of the New Hauptbau in the Rococo style, especially the palace theatre. Charles Eugene abandoned the palace for Stuttgart in 1775. Duke Frederick II, later King Frederick I, began using Ludwigsburg as his summer residence in the last years of Charles Eugene's reign. Frederick and his wife Charlotte, Princess Royal, resided at Ludwigsburg and employed Nikolaus Friedrich von Thouret to renovate the palace in the Neoclassical style. Thouret converted much of Ludwigsburg's interiors over the reign of Frederick and the later life of Charlotte. As a result of each architect's work, Ludwigsburg is a combination of Baroque, Rococo, Neoclassical, and Empire style architecture.
The constitutions of the Kingdom and Free People's State of Württemberg were ratified at Ludwigsburg Palace, in 1819 and 1919 respectively. It was the residence for four of Württemberg's monarchs and some other members of the House of Württemberg and their families. The palace was opened to the public in 1918 and survived World War II intact. It underwent periods of restoration in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1990s and again for the palace's 300th anniversary in 2004. The palace had more than 350,000 visitors in 2017 and has hosted the Ludwigsburg Festival every year since 1947.
Surrounding the palace are the Blooming Baroque (Blühendes Barock) gardens, arranged in 1954 as they might have appeared in 1800. Nearby is Schloss Favorite, a hunting lodge built in 1717 by Frisoni. Within the palace are two museums operated by the Landesmuseum Württemberg dedicated to fashion and porcelain respectively.
"Ludwigsburg", meaning "Louis's castle", was named after its builder, Eberhard Louis, Duke of Württemberg, in 1705. It was built on the site of a hunting estate and lodge owned by the dukes of Württemberg. This was destroyed by invading French troops in 1692, during the Nine Years' War, and replaced by another lodge built from 1697 to 1701. The beginning in 1701 of another war, the War of the Spanish Succession, against France and Bavaria, interrupted construction of this lodge, though Württemberg deferred entering the war until late 1702. Württemberg was subsequently invaded by France and Bavaria, but in 1704, the Bavarian elector was defeated at the Battle of Blenheim and exiled, and Bavaria was occupied. Eberhard Louis, a participant of Blenheim and the subsequent occupation, spent the winter of 1705–06 at the elector's residence, Nymphenburg Palace. Eberhard Louis used these developments to press claims to Bavarian lands, but illegally occupied the claimed lands. He was further undone by another French invasion of Württemberg in 1707 that resulted in the destruction of his capital and the flight of his family to Switzerland. Eberhard Louis's designs were at last defeated by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, which restored the territory and title of the Bavarian elector. Unable to compete with Bavaria militarily or politically, and desiring to sideline the influence of the Estates of Württemberg, Eberhard Louis decided instead to compete culturally and build a new palace and town inspired by Versailles, which would be the center of his domestic society and diplomacy. Located 10 kilometers (6.2 mi) from Stuttgart, Eberhard Louis could set up a court with his mistress, Wilhelmine von Grävenitz, and demonstrate his absolutist status as a monarch.
Construction of Ludwigsburg Palace had officially begun in May 1704 with the laying of the Alter Hauptbau's cornerstone by Eberhard Louis. The year before, he sent Philipp Joseph Jenisch to study architecture abroad, and himself studied architecture while staying at Nymphenburg. Upon Jenisch's return the next year, Eberhard Louis appointed him director of construction. Jenisch, however, only managed to finish the Alter Hauptbau's (Old main building) first floor and some of the southern garden before falling out of the duke's favor in 1707. Jenisch was replaced in 1707 with Johann Friedrich Nette, an engineer. By 1709, it had become apparent that the massive undertaking of the palace's construction eventually necessitated the building of a town, also known as Ludwigsburg. That cost of construction provoked financial consequences, opposition at court, and criticism from the populace.
Nette was now charged with building a complete Baroque palace from Jenisch's central corps de logis, to which an east wing and a west wing were to be added, aligned at 11°. Nette based his plans on those of Jenisch, enabling him to complete his design for a three-wing palace in the same year as his appointment. The galleries of the Alter Hauptbau were completed in 1707, then the corps de logis the next year. The Ordensbau and Riesenbau were constructed from 1709 to 1713, and their interiors were completed in 1714. Nette began the interior of the Alter Hauptbau, which he would never finish. Construction of the building's pavilions dragged on into 1722. Nette made two trips to Prague and his native Brandenburg to expand his pool of talent. He hired Johann Jakob Stevens von Steinfels, Tomasso Soldati, and Donato Giuseppe Frisoni in 1708, Andreas Quitainner in 1709, and then Luca Antonio Colomba, Riccardo Retti and Diego Francesco Carlone. Nette fled to Paris from an accusation of embezzlement from Jenisch's allies but was ordered back to Ludwigsburg by Eberhard Louis. On his return trip, he died suddenly of a stroke on 9 December 1714 in Nancy at the age of 41. At the time of his death, most of the northern section of the modern palace and its northern garden was complete.
Eberhard Louis thwarted an attempt by Jenisch to get the director job again and replaced Nette in 1715 with Frisoni. Frisoni, although having no formal training in architecture, enjoyed the support of the court chamberlain and impressed the duke with his stucco work in the Alter Hauptbau. Frisoni resumed construction with the palace's churches, beginning the Schlosskapelle in 1716 and the Ordenskapelle in 1720, then finished the Kavalierbauten in 1722. Frisoni also added the mansard roof to the top of the Alter Hauptbau, as its flat roof was prone to water damage. This had become a common issue with Nette's work because of the pressure the duke placed on him to finish the palace as soon as possible. Frisoni's work thus far led him to believe that he did not have a large enough talent pool to satisfy the duke's desires for the palace and town, so Frisoni brought in Giacomo Antonio Corbellini and Paolo Retti, his brother and son-in-law respectively, who were followed by Diego Francesco Carlone in 1718.
In 1721, the duke began to run out of room in the Alter Hauptbau for the functions of his court and Frisoni began planning to enlarge it. The duke dismissed the idea in 1724 and ordered Frisoni to construct the Neuer Hauptbau. Frisoni designed a four-story structure, double the height of the existing palace, but plans changed several times after construction began in 1725 atop the first terrace of the south garden. Frisoni settled on a three-story building that still afforded Eberhard Louis six rooms for his suite to the three in the Alter Hauptbau. To connect the Neuer Hauptbau to the existing palace, Frisoni built the Bildergalerie and Festinbau on the west side, and the Ahnengalerie and Schlosstheater (Palace theater) on the east. The Bildergalerie and Ahnengalerie were decorated from 1731 to 1733. With the exception of the interiors of the Neuer Hauptbau and Schlosstheater, all work was finished in 1733, but Eberhard Louis died that same year. Only a few rooms in the west end of the Neuer Hauptbau had been completed when he died. Construction of the Neuer Hauptbau and its connecting galleries cost 465,000 guilders and was managed by Paolo Retti, who at times had more than 650 stone masons, cutters, and basic laborers working on the facades between 1726 and 1728. Construction of Ludwigsburg Palace cost the Duchy of Württemberg 3,000,000 florins.
Eberhard Louis left no heirs and was succeeded by Charles Alexander. Charles Alexander ended funding for the palace, dismissed its staff, and moved the capital back to Stuttgart in 1733 to modernize Württemberg's army and fortifications. As central figures in the construction of what was now decried as the "sin palace", Frisoni and Paolo Retti were arrested in 1733 on fraudulent charges of embezzlement. The two men were acquitted in 1735 after they paid a hefty fine to the ducal treasury, despite attempted intervention by Charles William Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach to free them earlier. Frisoni died in Ludwigsburg on 29 November 1735. Charles Alexander himself died suddenly two years later on 12 March 1737 as he prepared to leave Ludwigsburg Palace to inspect the duchy's fortresses. After his death, the nine-year-old Charles Eugene became Duke, beginning a regency that lasted until 1744.
Charles Eugene began the construction of a new palace in Stuttgart in 1746 but unofficially used Ludwigsburg as his residence until 1775. The function of certain rooms at Ludwigsburg changed frequently; Johann Christoph David von Leger converted the Ordenskapelle to a Lutheran church from 1746 to 1748 for Duchess Elisabeth Fredericka Sophie. Beginning in 1757 and lasting into the next year, the suites of the beletage were extensively modified by Philippe de La Guêpière. La Guêpière completed the Schlosstheater in 1758–59, adding a stage, machinery, and the auditorium. A wooden opera house, adorned with mirrors, was constructed in 1764–65, located east of the Alter Hauptbau. Although Charles Eugene officially declared Ludwigsburg Palace his residence in 1764, he made no further modifications after 1770. The palace that had hosted a court that Giacomo Casanova called "the most magnificent in Europe" began a steady decline. Charles Eugene died without a legitimate heir in 1793 and was succeeded by his brother, Frederick II Eugene, who was succeeded by his son Frederick II in 1797. Ludwigsburg Palace had already been Frederick II's summer residence since 1795, and he continued to use it as such with Duchess Charlotte after marrying her on 18 May 1797.
Napoleon's armies occupied Württemberg from 1800 to 1801, forcing the duke and duchess to flee to Vienna. The royals returned when Frederick II agreed in 1803 to pledge allegiance to Napoleon and part with Württemberg's territory on the Left Bank of the Rhine, an area of 388 square kilometers (150 sq mi). In exchange, according to the Treaty of Lunéville, Frederick II was named a Prince-elector and given 1,609 square kilometers (621 sq mi) of mediatised Right Bank territory. Frederick II, now Elector Frederick I, tasked his court architect Nikolaus Friedrich von Thouret with renovating the palace in the Neoclassical style. Thouret started in the Ahengalerie and the Ordensbau, working there from 1803 to 1806. For two days in October 1805, Napoleon visited Ludwigsburg to coerce Frederick I into joining the Confederation of the Rhine and thus becoming his ally, compensating Württemberg with neighboring territories in the Holy Roman Empire and Frederick I with the title of king. Frederick I again tasked Thouret with a remodeling, from 1808 to 1811, of the Ordenskapelle and the king's apartment. The final modernizations ordered by the king took place from 1812 to 1816 in the Schlosstheater and Marble Hall. During this time, the ceiling frescoes of the Guard Room and the main staircases of the Neuer Hauptbau were repainted. By the time Frederick I died in 1816, the majority of the palace had been converted to reflect the latest style.
Following her husband's death, Charlotte continued to reside at Ludwigsburg, receiving visitors such as her siblings. She tasked Thouret with the renovation of her own apartment, which was carried out between 1816 and 1824. The dowager queen died at the palace on 5 October 1828 following a bout of apoplexy. Charlotte was the last ruler of Württemberg to reside at Ludwigsburg, as Frederick's son and successor, William I, and future kings did not show any interest in the palace. Members of the House of Württemberg continued to reside at the palace into the early 20th century, while the Württembergs moved to Bebenhausen Abbey after the abolition of the monarchy in 1918.
In 1817, ownership of Ludwigsburg Palace passed from the House of Württemberg to the government of the Kingdom of Württemberg, which established offices there the next year. King William I chose the Order Hall, the throne room of his father, for the ratification of the kingdom's constitution in 1819. The palace's first restoration took place at the Alter Hauptbau in 1865.
On 9 November 1918, the Kingdom of Württemberg was dissolved with the abdication of King William II. Ludwigsburg Palace was opened to the public that same year and a new constitution was ratified for the Free People's State of Württemberg on 12 January 1919. At this time, two apartments at Ludwigsburg Palace were still occupied by members of the House of Württemberg, Duke Ulrich and Princess Olga. The new state ordered them vacated until 1 April for the ratification. Ulrich moved out of Ludwigsburg in January, but Olga rented a new suite in the Neuer Hauptbau in February. She continued to reside at Ludwigsburg in her apartment with her family until her death in 1932.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Ludwigsburg Palace”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.