Excursion tour in Stuttgart. Top architecture - monuments, castles, temples and palaces

» The construction of the New Palace was initiated by Duke Charles Eugene of Württemberg who intended to turn Stuttgart into the French Versailles. It began to be built in 1746 by Italian architect Matteo Retti. Five years later, he was replaced by French architect Philippe de La Guêpière.
» It took a long time to erect the palace, and the construction was ceased several times. The building was completed in 1807 just by the arrival of Emperor Paul I and his wife Maria Feodorovna (Sophie of Württemberg), Charles Eugene of Württemberg’s niece.
» Before the First World War, the palace was the residence of the dukes and kings of Württemberg. After the war and revolution, the building became a museum.
» In 1944, Stuttgart was heavily bombed. Only the walls of the palace remained intact.
» While voting, there was one vote more for the decision to restore the palace than against it, so it was rebuilt in 1964.
» Today the Parliament of Baden-Württemberg works here. But guided tours are held in some rooms where the wealth and luxury of imperial residences can be seen.

» The Mercedes-Benz Museum dates back to 1936. It was located on the territory of the plant itself.
» In 1961, a new museum building was constructed and opened by the 75th anniversary of the car invention.
» In 1985, the building was reconstructed to expand the exhibition area. The area of the museum was increased to 5,760 square metres.
» In 2000, the company decided to build a museum complex. It was inaugurated in 2006.
» The new building has a modern futuristic design. The internal design in the form of a DNA helix looks original as well. Museum tours are held around both helices simultaneously.
» Visitors are offered two routes: myth rooms and collections. The first route covers the 125-year history of the Mercedes-Benz brand, while the second one demonstrates various types of cars: production, freight, sports cars.
» The exhibition of old cars is of interest: the legendary Daimler of 1886, limousines owned by Kaiser Wilhelm, Konrad Adenauer, and Japanese Emperor Hirohito. Museum visitors can use an audio guide available in several languages.

» The Linden Museum is named after Karl Graf von Linden, the founder of the Trade Geography Association in 1882, which was the prototype of the modern museum.
» Developing trade relations with different parts of the world, merchant ships brought interesting objects and items of national cultures from different countries. In 1889, Karl Linden and his colleagues created an ethnological museum that contained 63,000 exhibits.
» William II, the last king of Württemberg, took an active part in creating the museum’s collections.
» In 1911, a special museum building was constructed.
» There are 7 thematic exhibitions: Africa, North America, South America, East Asia, South Asia, Muslim East, Oceania.
» The museum lives a very eventful life. In addition to permanent exhibitions, various events designed for visitors are held here.
» The Linden Museum is the most significant ethnological museum in Europe. The Russian Museum of Ethnography maintains close ties with the museum in Stuttgart.

» The Staatsgalerie Stuttgart dates from 1834 when the Museum of Fine Arts was built.
» King William I became the founder of the gallery. His collection of paintings included works by great medieval artists such as Dürer, Rubens, Rembrandt, and others.
» In 1984, a new gallery building was constructed and opened. The design by English architect James Stirling had been chosen for it. The building became a remarkable representative of postmodern architecture in Germany.
» It exhibits a large collection of 20th-century paintings. The works by prominent artists such as Picasso, Dali, Monet, Modigliani, Renoir, Matisse, etc are exhibited here.
» The third gallery building was built in 2002. It shows a collection of graphics and the American avant-garde of 1945; free rooms are used for temporary exhibitions.
» The gallery has a large archive of ancient books, letters, and documents of the 20th century.

» The construction of the Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof lasted for 13 years. The style used for the building was the New Objectivity.
»  More than 3,000 powerful oak structures and rectangular limestone blocks were used to make the construction stable.
»  The building was completed in 1927. Trains to different European cities and countries have been departing from here for almost a hundred years.
»  A four-storey tower (56 m) that can be seen from any part of the city rises above the main building. A symbol in the form of a Mercedes star is spinning above it, and a clock with a huge dial is installed there.
»  The Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof meets up to 200,000 travellers daily, and up to 1,200 trains depart from there every day. It has 16 railway tracks. Passengers leave the station from eight platforms.
»  The infrastructure inside the building has everything necessary for tourists.
»  The reconstruction of the dead-end station into an underground station with double tracks having a through passage and a 9-kilometre tunnel has begun. The future transit terminal is supposed to have access to the airport. Over two hundred trees will be cut down for the purpose.
»  The roof of the underground station will be eight metres high. The interior will be lit by six-metre portholes letting daylight and fresh air in.
»  Estimated costs amount to over 5 billion euros.

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Facts: » St. Nicholas’ Cathedral is a Russian Orthodox church in Stuttgart. The presence of the Orthodox Church was established in Germany in 1816, when Catherine, a daughter of Emperor Paul I and sister of Alexander I and Nicholas I, married William of Württemberg. She brought priest Vasily Afanasyev and four choirmen with her.
» Three years after her death, William ordered the construction of a church and a tomb on Mount Rotenberg. That’s how the first Orthodox church appeared here in 1824.
» William I’s second wife, Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia, cherished the hope of building a church in the city centre. This idea was realized by Olga’s adopted daughter, Grand Duchess Vera Konstantinovna, in 1895.
» The Russian community continued being active during the Second World War. The number of parishioners even increased. Russians sent for forced labour came here.
» In 1944, the church was damaged by an incendiary bomb.
» In 1948, thanks to the money allocated by the city authorities and donations from citizens, the church was restored. The church’s 100th anniversary was celebrated in 1995.
» In 2001, the church became a cathedral. The community grew to 1,000 people because of immigrants from the former USSR.

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Facts: » The monastery church is the oldest building in the city. It dates from the 10th century.
» In 1240, the church had three large naves and two towers, which was not typical of that time.
» In 1265, Ulrich I, Count of Württemberg, and his wife Agnes von Schlesien-Liegnitz were buried in the church. Since then, entire generations of the rulers of Baden-Württemberg (until 1819) have been resting here.
» Numerous reconstructions created a couple of interesting features in the appearance of the church. For example, its towers and chapels are of different size and height.
» It was completely destroyed during the 1944 bombing and then restored according to archival drawings. Only the basement floor of the south tower has been preserved since 1175.
» The old organ that is still being played today and fills the whole church with its sound was restored. The frescoes and original interior items that had been adorning the walls of the temple for many centuries couldn’t be restored.