The palace that grew a town: Residenzschloß Ludwigsburg

The palace was developed from the original hunting lodge by adding on wings and pavilions. These extensions follow the underlying grid. Every extension of the palace building meant an extension of the palace gardens in order to keep a balanced whole. The residential palace grew into a vast complex. The original hunting lodge was enlarged into a Corps de Logis with two four-room apartments. This central building was extended sideway by two pavilions (a Hunting Pavilion and a Playing Pavilion) connected by galleries and with two short side wings protruding forward from them: the Ordensbau and Riesenbau.

In 1715 another extension program started. This involved raising two new wings extending forward from the pavilion wings: the so-called Cavalierbauten (literally: Horsemen's Buildings). Off these wings two chapels, a theatre and banqueting hall (Festinbau) were built, resulting in an extended three winged structure around an honor court (Ehrenplatz).

The residential palace of Ludwigsburg was developed by extending and enlarging a hunting lodge into a vast complex around an honor court with the emblematic Adlerbrunnen (Eagle fountain) in the centre.

As the enlarged building was being completed it had already become too small for housing a full ducal court. So a new Corps de Logis was constructed opposite the honor court. This vast extension doubled the palace and was completed in 1733. It consists of a three winged structure that was attached to the older palace forming a large carré. To finish the complex of two large pavilions where constructed on the corners of the new main wing (to improve the proportions of the garden facade).

The honor court is a large open space at the center of the palace complex. Here the view across from the new Corps de Logis towards the old Corps de Logis that encapsulated the old hunting lodge. Flanking the parade ground are the two Cavelierbauten and behind them the Ordensbau (left) and Riesenbau (right). In the centre of the honor court stands the Eagle fountain.

The emblematic Adlerbrunnen (Eagle fountain) in the centre of the honor court of the palace. A copy was placed on the axis of the Neues Schloß (new castle) in Stuttgart and can still be seen in situ. On the right an image of the garden facade of the new Corps de Logis as seen from the lower parterre in the south garden.

Little known grids: Ludwigsburg

The beginning of the town of Ludwigsburg in Baden-Württemberg is the acquisition of the hunting lodge Erlachhof by Duke Eberhard Ludwig von Württemberg in 1704. In the same year the first stone was laid for a large new lodge the duke "modestly" named after himself and a long axis was carved from the Salonwald: the Königsallee (King's Avenue). Previously only small scale monastic landholdings where to be found here edging vast forests.  In the early sixteen hundreds a small lodge was built on the edge of the arable land belonging to the monastery. This building had been destroyed by French troops in 1693.

From 1709 onwards a new town was developed on the basis of the spacious grid of hunting avenues. The town is named after the neigbouring hunting lodge which is to be extended into a residential palace (Residenzschloß). Ludwigsburg is clearly a planned urban foundation with a regular grid plan. The central axis is formed by the Königsallee from which the grid is developed. Older roads and cultivated fields show in the city plan as curved lines.

The oldest part of Ludwigsburg is situated directly west of the palace grounds around the market place. Between 1727 and 1730 court nobles and civil servants built both large and small houses in this new town that is eventually walled-in and fitted witch city gates. Besides houses there were  churches, military barracks, stables, inns, warehouses, administrative offices and government buildings built. Thus Ludwigsburg becomes the new ducal residence instead of Stuttgart. The new city was over time connected witch hunting grounds close by and further afield by long avenues in a magnificent late baroque gesture.

 

The regular grid plan of Ludwigsburg was developed from a forest.The oldest part of the town is to be found around the Marktplatz (1). The first extension of the town is situated directly south around the Rathausplatz (2).The former monasterial landholdings (3) are situated north of the old town.The basis of the layout is a long axis that starts at the Salonwald (A) and now ends at Favorite (G). The Königsallee (B) connected the Salonwald with the hunting lodge and later palace. The long alley crosses the Bärenwiese (C) and ends at the gates of the South Parterre (D). The axis runs through the middle of the imposing residential palace (E) and the North Parterre (F). The strict grid of Ludwigsburg incorporates older cultivated land north of the town center and a few older routes that once crossed the forest (in yellow).