220407 - Palaces

More Photos

Last day in Stuttgart was a trip down to 2 palaces, Ludwigsburg and Favourite.

Ludwigsburg is a baroque-style palace of Duke Eberhard Ludwig, who first built it for the rulers of Wuettermberg. There is nothing much to behold on the facade (like what Ti Pin said,"It looks like a Buero ('office' in German)"), but the interior speaks for itself: opulent, gaudy and pompous - 100% Baroque. But the initial intention of the Duke for Ludwigsburg was as a hunting lodge, but apparently some unexpected twist of fate, he met a lady and they settled finally down there, where he moved the centre of administration from Stuttgart to the town of Ludwigsburg. There, the first king of Wuettermberg, King Friedrich, was coronated, under the influence of Napoleon (again; he had a hand in Neuschwanstein as well... that man...). So Ludwigsburg Schloss became his centre of admin and power.

Favourite Schloss is really only a hunting lodge for the rulers, an extension of the Ludwigsburg and the Duke's immeasurable desire for pleasure. Hunting was done extravagantly, it was said as many as 600 animals died in one single hunting session. The little woods surrounding the lodge serve as the hunting grounds. Today we only saw 2 deer...

One interesting thing I saw when we were travelling back to get our stuff before we head back to Munich: speed dating on the train! WOW! Speed dating on the MRT! Suck that!