Solitude Palace, Rococo hunting palace in Stuttgart-West, Germany
Solitude Palace is a Rococo pleasure palace on a ridge between Leonberg, Gerlingen and Stuttgart, built from 1764 to 1769. Its cream-coloured centre is an oval domed pavilion with a double staircase curving around a central arched passage; two lower wings with dormered roofs flank it on a grassy slope.
Construction took place between 1764 and 1769 on the orders of Duke Carl Eugen, who chose the site as a retreat. Architects Johann Friedrich Weyhing and Philippe de La Guêpière led the works together and created a formal complex.
The White Hall's walls are clad in stucco marble, with six French doors between Corinthian columns; the stucco by Valentin Sonnenschein, Johann Adam Bauer and Ludovico Bossi sets oval windows among flower garlands, arms trophies and frescoes. Above the north and south entrances hang the arms of the Duchy of Württemberg and of Duke Charles Eugene. Nicolas Guibal painted the ceiling around 1768, with virtues flanking the ducal coronet. Since 1990 the outbuildings house the Akademie Schloss Solitude, whose artists live in the cavalier buildings.
The palace opens daily from 10 AM to 4 PM and offers regular tours through the main rooms. Entry is through the inner courtyard, where information boards about the tour route and restrooms are available.
A straight avenue thirteen kilometers long connects the building directly with the Ludwigsburg residence palace. This axis was meant to link the two ducal homes symbolically and spatially.
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