Solitude Palace

Solitude Palace

Schloss Soli­tude stands high on a hill to the west of Stuttgart, offer­ing a mag­nif­i­cent view to the north towards Lud­wigs­burg. It was com­mis­sioned by Duke Carl Eugen von Würt­tem­berg and its con­struc­tion from 1764 to 1775 was over­seen by court archi­tect Philippe de la Guêpière. It’s a beau­ti­ful com­plex with a large park sur­round­ing it.

The main build­ing of the palace, the charm­ing cen­tral pavil­ion of the com­plex, con­tains ornate state rooms dec­o­rat­ed in the style of the late Roco­co and ear­ly Clas­si­cism. It has been well pre­served and is well worth pay­ing for the guid­ed tour (infor­ma­tion cards are avail­able in a vari­ety of lan­guages, although most tours are in Ger­man and only a few are in English).

The Duke and his entourage inhab­it­ed the south­ern out­build­ings.  Since 1990, the Akademie Schloss Soli­tude has been accom­mo­dat­ed in sev­er­al of the out­build­ings. Its aim is to pro­mote young artists. In anoth­er out­build­ing is the Muse­um Fritz von Graevenitz with works by this renowned Stuttgart sculptor.

Fan­cy a nice long walk? From 1764 to 1768, Duke Carl Eugen had the Soli­tudeallee built as a con­nect­ing route to the Res­i­den­tial Palace Lud­wigs­burg. This packed dirt road is more than 10 km (6 miles) long and pre­served well enough that you can walk near­ly the entire way.


Web­site – Google Maps


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