Castle Schloss Ludwigsburg
Castle Schloss Ludwigsburg
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There are few baroque palaces where visitors can tread so authentically in the footsteps of absolutist rulers. This residence of Württemberg Dukes, spared the ravages of war, is one of the biggest and finest baroque stately homes in Europe. Built originally as a hunting lodge in 1704, it was expanded under the Duke Eberhard Ludwig until, by 1733, it epitomized all that a contemporary absolutist might expect of a seat of residence. The three wings designed by Johann Friedrich Nette did not, with time, satisfy the requirements of official ceremony. Donato Giuseppe Frisoni, who succeeded Nette as architect, converted them into a four winged arrangement. For 15 years Ludwigsburg usurped Stuttgart's place as the Duke's seat of government. The furnishing of the new main building was carried out in 1758 under Karl Eugen, and the Duke's apartment in the attic story, designed by Philippe de la Guepiere, has been exceedingly well preserved. Friedrich I, the first king of Württemberg, only used Ludwigsburg as a summer residence. Around 1800 to 1815 he had many of the rooms modernized in the French Empire style by Nikolaus von Thouret. The splendor of the Württemberg court is still reflected in long sequences of rooms sumptuously fitted out with furniture, wall hangings, paintings and sculpture. The Palace Theatre, uniquely preserved in its entirety, offers a glimpse of glittering courtly entertainment, with its opera, ballet, theater and society banquets.
True to type, Ludwigsburg is set in extensive gardens, laid out originally with all the formal symmetry of the baroque style. Dean Friedrichs I had the east garden transformed into an English landscape are. Among the features which have survived are the Emichsburg (an artificial ruined castle) and the Bowl Lake.
Marble Saletta in the Hunting Pavilion
The marble saletta and the three small rooms to the west of it on the first floor of the hunting pavilion have fared better than most of the rooms in the palace at Ludwigsburg in retaining their baroque design. The vivacious forms and rich hues testifying to the very high standards that are attained during the early phase of the palaces appointment in the early 18th century.
The room, furnished in 1715 -- 16, owes its name to its decorative stuccolustro (trompe l'oeil marble) walls. Antonio Corbellini adorned that the last those with colorful lacing. On the walls themselves we see the cross of the Hunting Order of St. Hubertus in the monogram of its founder, Duke Eberhard Ludwig of Württemberg, for whom these works were carried out. Lively ribbons of stucco by Riccardo Retti frame the ceiling painted by Luca Antonia Colomba, which shows up hollow and the Muses.
Two of the design features which play a key role in this interior have been preserved: the two strikingly framed fireplaces with their tall mirrors and the floor with its broad oval described in wood to add a festive vitality to the rectangular room.
Second Ante-Chamber in Duke Karl Eugen's Apartment
From 1757 to 1759 Duke Karl Eugen had an apartment for social occasions created in elegant French style rococo on the second floor of the new main building. His court architect Philippe de la Guepiere - hired to build the Neues Schloss in Stuttgart -- designed every detail of this beautifully preserved suite. A stately vestibule with stucco work is followed by two ante-chambers as a prelude to the central assembly room; two smaller rooms and a bedroom incompletely appointed complete the sequence.
The second antechamber is the only room in the apartment which is fully paneled, and as a result its fabric is the best preserved. The panel work is by sculptor Michel Fressancourt, who also made the wall tables and seating for Duke Karl Eugen of Württemberg. The other rooms were given silk wallcoverings, recently reconstructed to historical details on the inventory. The entire apartment has kept its original decorative paintings over the doors and fireplaces. The ones in the second antechamber are particularly delightful. They show various pleasures of court society, including the kind of social gathering which might have taken place in this very room. Another picture illustrates an entertaining "jeu du pied de boeuf", a popular game of gallantry in which the male loser forfeited a wage to the female winner (or vice versa). The artist Matthäus Günther, recruited by the Duke like de la Guepiere for the new palace in Stuttgart, based these paintings on French engravings.
The apartment is furnished with sumptuous pieces bearing the insignia of master craftsman. Duke Karl Eugen purchased these in Paris for his various building projects. They include chest of drawers, writing desks in various formats and cleverly devised smaller items. The carved and gilded wall-mounted tables were made at the Württemberg court by sculptors trained in French techniques.
King Friedrich's Bedroom
When the future King Friedrich I of Württemberg assumed the government as duke, Schloss Ludwigsburg had been slumbering in oblivion. The once magnificent rooms of his forefathers had aged. Goethe wrote at the time: "the well known and spacious palace most habitable, but both old and new decorated and furnished in can paradigm the foul taste". The first thing Friedrich did in Ludwigsburg, in keeping with its future use as a summer residence, was to have the extensive garden and its pavilions modernized. Next came the rooms in the new main building that we used for stately and social occasions. A suite from the period 1802 to 1811 has been preserved here in its stylistic unity. After a sumptuous hall of audience exclusively in red and gold, the bedroom draped in pale blue is one of its highlights. Friedrich drew here on Napoleonic models after he was raised from Duke to King in 1806. The accurately pleated textiles with borders and tressage were intended to suggest a field marshal's tent. The ceiling addresses the theme of sleep with its golden stars and rosette of poppy capsules. Bright blue corn flowers echo the color of the wall covering.
The neoclassical revamping of the Ludwigsburg Palace achieved a major impact with relatively little import. This was the great strength of architect Nikolaus Friedrich von Thouret, who had outstanding assistance in sculptor Antonio Isopi and Johannes Klinckerfuss. The registry adjoining the bedroom was decorated with grotesques in clearly structured fields, inspired by Raphael's famous Vatican loggia. The cupboards designed by Klinckerfuss to hold the records bear inscriptions in golden lettering -- INTERNA, EXTERNA and PUBLICA - and convey an impression of orderly royal administration.
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