Karlsruhe Palace

Margrave Karl Wilhelm founded Karlsruhe in 1715 by building a hunting lodge in a forest and laying out thirty-two avenues radiating from its tower like the ribs of a fan, nine of them becoming city streets and the rest running into the woods; the plan is unique among European cities and gives Karlsruhe its nickname, the fan city. The palace was rebuilt after 1944 bombing and now holds the Badisches Landesmuseum, whose collections include a large holding of Ottoman objects taken in the seventeenth-century wars, known as the Türkenbeute. The tower is climbed for the view down the radiating streets.

History

Margrave Charles III William of Baden-Durlach built the palace in 1715 after a quarrel with the citizens of his old capital, Durlach, and the first building, by Jakob Friedrich von Batzendorf, stood at the centre of a city planned with 32 streets radiating from its tower like the ribs of a folding fan, which gave Karlsruhe its name of "fan city". Built partly of wood, the palace was rebuilt in stone from 1746, and Margrave Charles Frederick, later Grand Duke of Baden, had it altered by Balthasar Neumann and Friedrich von Kesslau until 1770 with larger windows, pavilions and wings; in 1785 Wilhelm Jeremias Müller shortened the tower and added a cupola. The palace was reduced to rubble in the Second World War and quickly rebuilt, and it now houses the Badisches Landesmuseum (Wikipedia, Karlsruhe Palace).

Highlights

• The fan plan - thirty-two avenues radiating from a single tower.
• The tower view - the radial layout visible from above.
• The Türkenbeute - a large collection of Ottoman objects in the museum.
• The Schlossgarten - the park behind, with a miniature railway.

When to go

April to October for the park; the museum closes Mondays. The fan plan is best understood from the tower, which has its own opening hours.

Before you go

The palace is postwar reconstruction. Museum sections close for refurbishment. The radial plan is only legible from the tower or a map.

Nearby

Baden-Baden lies south; the Rhine is west.

Key facts