With the New Castle, Duke Carl Eugen von Wuerttemberg (1744 - 1793) had the last large Baroque residence castle facilities in Germany built. He demanded from the city and the Wuerttemberg representatives of the orders that they build a "proper residence which is convenable to his royal dignity and the amplitude of his royal household" because he wanted to make Stuttgart to a second Versailles.
The cornerstone was laid on 3 September 1746. The building master was Leopoldo Matteo Retti, a nephew of Donato Giovanni Frisoni, the builder of the castle in Ludwigsburg. Between 1746 and 1751, Retti built the main building, the so-called Corps de Logis and the garden wing. In doing so, he used the contemporary architecture of France as an orientation.
Around the middle building, forming a horseshoe shaped court of honor, the two side wings were attached. The three-winged facility is a typical representative of its time. The only adornments on the plain façade are the sculptures on the balustrades. After the death of Retti, Philippe de la Guêpière continued the construction. By 1756 he had completed the city wing in the building shell and added a dome to the middle building in 1760 and by 1762 created the Rococo decorations in the garden wing and partially in the Corps de Logis.
After a fire in November 1762, Duke Carl Eugen decreed the quick completion of the White Room and the Mirror Gallery in the city wing in order to have an adequate place for his birthday celebrations one year later. But then the work on the New Castle was stopped for a decade because Carl Eugen moved the residence to Ludwigsburg in 1764 and didn't return to Stuttgart until 1775. After his return, the construction of the Marble Room and the garden wing followed.
After Duke Friedrich II became King of Wuerttemberg in 1806, he had the rooms in the New Castle redecorated by Nikolaus Friedrich von Thouret in the Imperial style. The kings of Wuerttemberg resided in the New Castle until the middle of the past century.
Richard von Weizsäcker was born in an attic apartment of the New Castle on 15 April 1920. He was the president of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1984 to 1994.
The reconstruction of the castle followed the destruction thereof in 1944 from 1958 to 1964. Today the New Castle is the home of the ministries of the Baden-Wuerttemberg state government and representation rooms.
Opening hours
The interior can also be visited during special guided tours.
