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39-480: Charles Eugene von Württemberg succeeded his father Charles Alexander as Duke of Württemberg in 1737, when he was only nine. The Duchy of Württemberg was ruled by a regency council until 1744, when Charles Eugene reached the age of majority at 16. His reign would be marked by economic difficulty, political strife, and extravagance. By the 1760s, Charles Eugene's policies and ambitions had met with failure. He had failed to achieve increased rank and prestige from

78-468: A loggia , a vestibule , two cabinets, and a bedroom. Adjacent to the palatial building are two semicircular buildings. The Western Wing contained amenities, while the Eastern was the actual royal apartment. The Duke resided on the ground floor, and his mistress on the second floor with the ducal chapel. An additional ten houses were built on either end of the wings. Since 1990, these buildings have housed

117-530: A banker Charles Eugene had met in Paris, befriended the Duke and acted as the agent of his purchases in the city. Between 1751 and 1759 Karl Eugen was involved in an increasingly bitter struggle with his adviser, the eminent Liberal jurist Johann Jakob Moser who strongly opposed the Duke's absolutist tendencies. In 1759 Charles Eugene had Moser charged with authoring "a subversive writing" and cast into prison for

156-524: A decent burial. He was also well known for his extensive library, his extravagant interest in opera, and interest in large scale horticulture for the feeding of the masses. Charles Eugene made the first of his five trips to Paris and the Palace of Versailles in 1748 with his first wife. He used these trips to sightsee and acquire Parisian goods for Ludwigsburg Palace while touring the workshops those goods were manufactured in. From 1776 Etienne Sollicoffre,

195-604: A large number of palaces and bankrupted his lands through courtly extravagance, accepting huge French government loans in exchange for maintaining large numbers of support troops in Württemberg. He was an early patron of Friedrich Schiller . However, in 1780 he had him arrested for deserting his post as a regimental doctor in Stuttgart in order to attend the first performance of his play The Robbers in Mannheim. Schiller

234-553: A million florins . Construction was directed by La Guêpière and Johann Friedrich Weyhing  [ de ] . From 1764 and 1768, Charles Eugene constructed the Solitude Avenue  [ de ] , a 13-kilometre (8.1 mi) long road from Solitude Palace to Ludwigsburg and its palace . Use of the Avenue was reserved for the royal household. In 1820, the Avenue became the standard reference for measuring distance in

273-404: A new palace that received the name "Solitude". Friedrich Christoph Hemmerling was named head gardener and charged with its design and creation. Priority during construction went towards the two wings next to the palatial building until they were completed in 1766. It was from these that the Duke closely monitored construction. La Guêpière departed from Württemberg for his native Paris in 1768. He

312-431: Is made up by a primary palatial structure, two outbuildings, and some avenues. There was also an extensive garden, laid out by Friedrich Christoph Hemmerling along preexisting paths. Reinhard Heinrich Ferdinand Fischer drew up plans for massive expansions to the garden and palace complex from 1766 to 1772 that closely followed the principles of French horticulturalist Antoine-Joseph Dezallier d'Argenville . The south garden

351-513: Is made up by oval-shaped windows connected by flowery garlands and topped by trophies of arms and frescoes. Above the north and south entrances into the White Hall are, respectively, the coat of arms of the Duchy of Württemberg and those of Duke Charles Eugene. The ceiling fresco was painted around 1768 by Nicolas Guibal and glorifies Charles Eugene's reign with personified virtues, flanking

390-658: Is the Library Cabinet, whose walls are painted in a mimicry of woodgrain . The east wing consists of drawing rooms for visitors, namely two halls and four cabinets. The first room is the Assembly Room , painted blue and decorated with more golden stucco, and spanning the entire width of the building. Beyond is the Music Room, painted white and decorated with mirrors, yet more stucco, and overdoors painted by court painter Adolf Friedrich Harper . Attached to

429-568: The Akademie Schloss Solitude . The Graevenitz Museum  [ de ] , displaying works by the Stuttgart sculptor Fritz von Graevenitz  [ de ] , is also located here. The palace chapel was constructed in a combination of the Rococo and Neoclassical styles. It is painted white in its entirety, except for the fresco on the flat ceiling painted by Guibal in 1766, and paired columns flank each window. Just above

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468-694: The Kingdom of Württemberg . The main palatial building follows a standard Rococo plan, consisting of a large, oval-shaped hall with two halls that end in a pavilion. It is surrounded by a terrace supported on a series of arches that rises to the beletage , with a belvedere and staircases on either side. The center of the building is the White Hall, whose walls are clad in stucco marble and passed through via six French doors , flanked by Corinthian columns . The stucco work, by Valentin Sonnenschein  [ de ] , Johann Adam Bauer, and Ludovico Bossi,

507-736: The State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart ), in 1765 a public library in Ludwigsburg (now the Württembergische Landesbibliothek , Stuttgart), and he was responsible for the construction of a number of other key palaces and buildings in the area including the New Palace which still stands at the centre of the Schlossplatz , Solitude Palace , Einsiedel Palace and Castle Hohenheim . Charles Eugene

546-596: The War of the Austrian Succession or the Seven Years' War , and had diplomatically isolated Württemberg because of his jostling and means of acquiring war funds. He had repeatedly withdrawn funding from the construction of his palaces, one of which was Monrepos , in Ludwigsburg . Charles Eugene turned his attention back to Stuttgart and, in 1763, he hired of architects led by Philippe de La Guêpière to plan

585-467: The Ducal coronet , triumphing over their inverse aspect as Greco-Roman deities represent highlights of the Duke's reign. Peace overcomes War, Bacchus and Ceres hold grapevines to symbolize local viticulture , and Apollo , leading various forms of art personified, celebrates Württemberg's cultural achievements. On top of the cupola is a viewing platform accessed by a hidden staircase in the north end of

624-464: The Music Room are four themed cabinets: the Picture, Red, Green, and Yellow Cabinets. The Picture Cabinet displays over 30 landscape paintings on its wall panels. The "basement" of the main building is divided exactly in half by and entered through an oval chamber directly beneath the White Hall. The walls of this chamber are covered with more trophies of arms. After 1771, the apartments were made up by

663-621: The Neoclassical style and where Charles Eugene greeted guests, which leads into the Palm Room, so named for the golden stucco palm trees that frame its windows. The Palm Room serves as the entrance to the bedroom, to the south and decorated like the antechamber, and to two cabinets to the north. The first of the latter is the Writing Cabinet, painted in shades of gray and ornamented with more golden stucco. The second, and smaller,

702-530: The White Hall. Some stone cartouches bearing statements from Charles Eugene are also found on the lower facade of the main building. Immediately to the west of the White Hall is the six rooms of the Ducal Apartment, which was used for impressing visitors. The first is an antechamber decorated with green and gold-painted stuccowork. Following this is the Marble Hall, the only room of the suite in

741-634: The architectural courses of the theoretician Jacques-François Blondel , from the 1730s La Guêpière took courses in architecture in Paris. He attended the Académie royale d'architecture . In 1750 he issued his engraved folio volume Plans, coupes et élévations de différents palais et églises . That same year Leopoldo Retti , who was engaged in building the Neues Schloss in Stuttgart for Karl Eugen, made an artistic reconnoitering trip to Paris, in

780-631: The columns, on the cornices are putti wielding the Arma Christi . At the chapel's entrance is the Ducal box, part of Charles Eugene's suite. American journalist and traitor Jane Anderson and two others stay at an abandoned Schloss Solitude during the Second World War in the novel The War Begins in Paris (published by Little, Brown & Co. in 2023.) Charles Eugene, Duke of W%C3%BCrttemberg Charles Eugene (German: Carl Eugen ; 11 February 1728 – 24 October 1793)

819-476: The company of the duke's garden designer Hemmerling. In Paris he oversaw the engraving of a suite of four folio sheets of the floorplan, section, elevations and profiles of the schloss that was being built. In Paris he may have encountered La Guêpière. At any rate, in 1752 Karl Eugen named La Guêpière architect to his court of Württemberg , to fill the post left empty by the unexpected death of Retti, in September

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858-511: The direction of La Guêpière, the oldest surviving stage machinery preserved in Europe. The water pavilion Monrepos was built from 1755 and completed in 1764 [Hlawtsch 1991]. He left Württemberg in 1768, with Schloss Solitude almost completed, to return to Paris, where he was one of the first architects to turn away from Rococo , developing his style towards the Goût grec the "Greek taste' that

897-569: The ducal court led Philippe de La Guêpière , though Charles Eugene was actively involved in the planning. The Duke desired the palace to be designed in the Rococo style, like his earlier project at Schloss Favorite . By 1763, however, the Rococo style had gone out of vogue in favor of Neoclassical architecture , and Solitude's interiors reflect this. At first, Charles Eugene intended to build an unassuming hunting retreat. He later changed his mind, and construction would last seven years and cost around

936-513: The government of Baden-Württemberg restored the palace's interiors. From May 1968 to 1986, an autonomous dorm was located in today's academy building. Many of the residents were musicians, actors and dancers, as well as social workers, architects and engineers. Professor K.R.H. Sonderborg from the Stuttgart Art Academy, the conductor Manfred Schreier and the actress Bettina Kupfer were frequent guests. Solitude Palace's complex

975-442: The grounds ceased. From the 1830s, however, King Charles I renovated the palace, while Queen Olga met with her relatives in the palace. Solitude was abandoned in the 20th century, the gardens fell into disrepair, and the ceiling frescoes by Nicolas Guibal were largely destroyed by water damage. The palace was used in times of war as a military hospital; during World War I , 23 soldiers died on its grounds. Between 1972 and 1983,

1014-505: The next five years. However, in 1764 Moser was released, due in part to the intercession of Friedrich the Great of Prussia, and was rehabilitated and restored to his position, rank and titles. Having accepted a subsidy from the French, in the Seven Years' War against Prussia , Charles Eugene advanced into Saxony . In 1761, Charles Eugen founded an Académie des Arts in Stuttgart (now

1053-562: The previous year. La Guêpière was one of the group of French-trained architects, like François de Cuvilliés in Munich , who brought the latest French style to the small German courts. He was occupied with works at the ducal Residenz of Stuttgart, the Neues Schloss that was built adjacent to the former palace [1] , and also at that of Karlsruhe . He was also responsible for the palatial retreat Schloss Solitude near Stuttgart and

1092-442: The waterside Schloss of Monrepos in the grounds of Ludwigsburg (1760–64). At Stuttgart La Guêpière lost little time in engraving and publishing further designs. His Recueil de différens projets d’architecture représentant plusieurs monuments publics et autres (Stuttgart, Jean Nicolas Stoll) was published on 11 December 1752. Like his Paris engravings, it broke with earlier traditions of architectural treatises by featuring just

1131-521: The works of a single architect (Klaiber). La Guêpière's work at the Stuttgart Neues Schloss was never completed. By 1756 the shell of the wing that faced the city was completed, the central Mittelbau erected and the interior decoration in the garden wing was complete. First the garden wing was destroyed by fire in 1762, then Karl Eugen faced opposition over his extravagance and abandoned Stuttgart for Ludwigsburg . The Neues Schloss

1170-468: Was an 18th-century French architect whose main commissions were from Karl Eugen, Duke of Württemberg . Philippe was born in Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine , south of Paris, the son of Lucien de La Guêpière, clerk of the works at the château de Sceaux , where the architect employed by Louis XIV 's natural son, the duc du Maine , had been his uncle, Jacques de La Guêpière (1670–1734). Apparently having followed

1209-544: Was bombed to ruin in World War II and has been rebuilt as a shell with modern interiors and some reproduced reception rooms [2] . At Ludwigsburg Palace , the alternate seat of the duke, La Guêpière was occupied in 1757–1758, in providing a court theater and in refurbishing the main block of the palace. Here the palace was not badly damaged in World War II. The theatre retains its stage machinery constructed under

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1248-888: Was born in Stuttgart on 19 February 1750 and died after 13 months in Stuttgart on 12 March 1751. Elisabetha left Charles Eugene in 1756 to return to her parents' court in Bayreuth although they never divorced. In the meantime, Charles Eugene kept a string of mistresses and fathered eleven children by them. The last of these mistresses was Franziska von Hohenheim , whom he raised to the status of Countess and married in Stuttgart on 10 or 11 January 1785. By an unknown mistress he had: By Luisa Toscani he had: By an unknown mistress he had: By Teresa Bonafoni he had: By Anna Eleonora Franchi he had: By an unknown mistress he had: By Katharina Kurz he had: By Regina Monti he had: Philippe de La Gu%C3%AApi%C3%A8re (Pierre Louis) Philippe de La Guêpière (c. 1715 – 30 October 1773)

1287-529: Was educated at the court of Frederick II of Prussia . He also studied keyboard with Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach in the 1740s (Bach's "Württemberg" sonatas, published in 1744, were dedicated to Charles Eugene). In his early years he ruled with an iron fist. In 1744 he ordered that the corpse of Joseph Süß Oppenheimer , his father's financial advisor executed by the Duke of Württemberg-Neuenstadt, whose decaying corpse had been suspended in an iron cage by Stuttgart's Prag gallows for six years, be taken down and given

1326-488: Was known for his interest in agriculture and travel and is considered the inspiration behind today's Hohenheim university, part of which now occupies his former summer estate . His original botanical gardens form the basis for today's Landesarboretum Baden-Württemberg and Botanischer Garten der Universität Hohenheim , which still contain some of the specimens he planted. He was also involved in Aviculture . He built

1365-693: Was sentenced to 14 days of imprisonment, and forbidden by Karl Eugen from publishing any further works. Hermann Sacher, writing in the Catholic Encyclopedia called Charles Eugene "a despot, spendthrift, and profligate". Charles Eugene ruled until his death in 1793, when he was succeeded by his younger brother. He died in Hohenheim . Charles Eugene married twice, first in Bayreuth on 26 September 1748 to Margravine Elisabeth Fredericka Sophie of Brandenburg-Bayreuth with whom he had one daughter, Friederike Wilhelmine Augusta Luise Charlotte, who

1404-609: Was succeeded as court architect and as director of construction at Solitude by his student, Reinhard Heinrich Ferdinand Fischer . In 1770, Charles Eugene established the Hohe Karlsschule on the grounds of Solitude Palace. It was at this school that Friedrich Schiller studied in his youth and wrote The Robbers . The school moved into Stuttgart in 1775, the same year the Duke himself shifted his attention to nearby Hohenheim Palace in 1775. The last grand function held at Solitude took place in 1782, after which maintenance of

1443-506: Was the Duke of Württemberg , and the eldest son, and successor, of Charles Alexander ; his mother was Princess Marie Auguste of Thurn and Taxis . Born in Brussels , he succeeded his father as ruler of Württemberg at the age of 9, but the real power was in the hands of Regents Carl Rudolf, Duke of Württemberg-Neuenstadt (1737–1738) and Carl Frederick von Württemberg-Oels (1738–1746). He

1482-550: Was the early forerunner of neoclassicism . His folio volume Recueil d'esquisses d'architecture was issued from Paris in 1765. La Guêpière was the architect of the neoclassical hôtel de ville of Montbéliard in Franche-Comté , where his patron Karl Eugen was stathouder . The corps de logis of the château was also rebuilt in a more stylish and commodious fashion. His works in France include interiors (since replaced) for

1521-409: Was used for the entertainment of residents and visitors to Solitude and offered a hedge maze , theater, orangery , riding hall , a chinoiserie house, and zoos. The surrounding forests were carefully manicured to facilitate the parforce  [ fr ] style of coursing . The grounds were allowed to fall into disrepair from 1770 onward. Castle Solitude was designed by a working group at

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