Grabkapelle / Rotenberg

Here you will find romance and an eternal proof of love: King Wilhelm I had the burial chapel on Württemberg built for his wife Katharina, who died young on January 9, 1819. The ancestral castle of his ancestors was even demolished for this purpose, as the site was one of the deceased queen's favorite places. Above the main entrance you will find the inscription "Love never ends". The king himself and their elder daughter Marie Friederike Charlotte von Württemberg were later laid to rest in the chapel.

Perhaps the monument reminds you a little of the ancient Pantheon in Rome or Palladio's Villa Rotonda. This is no coincidence. The building, erected between 1820 and 1824 to the design of court architect Giovanni Salucci, is one of the outstanding examples of classicist architecture in the Stuttgart area. Salucci created a circular building made of local sandstone with three column porticos and open staircases. The domed interior with its colossal statues of the four evangelists bears witness to the strict neoclassical taste of the time. In the basement is the burial chamber with the double sarcophagus of the royal couple and the single sarcophagus of their daughter.

Even today, the place still impresses with a fantastic view over Stuttgart. From its exposed location above the Neckar valley, you can look out over Stuttgart, the Daimler factory and towards Esslingen.