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Published: January 18th 2007
Rotenberg
RotenbergThe Sepulchral Chapel on Wuerttemberg Mountain is the Swabian version of the Taj Mahal in India - well, kind of at least :-).
The chapel is dedicated to Queen Katharina of Wuerttemberg. She died unexpectedly at the age of 30 on 9 January 1819. She was the wife of King William I of Wuerttemberg and the daughter of Russian Czar Paul and his wife Maria Feodorowna.
Queen Katharina was very popular with the people of Wuerttemberg: She founded for example several charitable institutions. Her death was therefore received with great sadness and dismay among her subjects.
Her last wish was that her final resting place be on the 411 Meters high Wuerttemberg Mountain, which is surrounded by vineyards and is overlooking Stuttgart. Wuerttemberg Mountain gave the whole region its name by the way.
There was a problem with her request: On said mountain stood - since the 11th century - the ancestral castle of the Wuerttemberg royalty. So what do you think did her husband, the King? Correct: In 1819 he had the whole castle torn down to erect the sepulchral chapel on this site for his late wife !
The classicistic design of the sepulchral
Rotenberg
Wineyard on slope of Wurttemberg Mountain. chapel that replaced the castle is the works of King William's court architect Giovanni Salucci.
The sepulchral chapel is a round building of sandstone with three porticos. Giovanni Salucci found the models for this architecture nowhere less than in the 'Pantheon' and Palladio's 'Villa Rotonda'. The interior is vaulted by a dome carried by a ring of Corinthian columns and pilasters.
Inside the chapel are now both lovers buried in marble sarcophaguses: Queen Katharina of Wuerttemberg and her husband King William I. On the main portica stands in large letters: 'DIE LIEBE HOERET NIMMER AUF' (Engl: "Love is eternal"). Now, say, isn't that romantic?
When you are in the Stuttgart region don't miss visiting this monument dedicated to eternal love !
This place is open Sundays & Holidays 10 am - 12 pm, 1 - 6 pm, Fr, Sa 10 am - 12 pm, 1 - 5 pm, We. 10 am - 12 pm. Admission: 2 Euros. Go to Stuttgart-Untertuerkheim, follow signs to 'Rotenberg' (village on slope of Wuerttemberg mountain) and then 'Grabkapelle'.
+49-(0)711-337149, info@schloss-solitude.de
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