Old Castle

Stand in the courtyard for a moment and listen. Footsteps echo off pale stone. Above you, three tiers of arcades wrap around the space like the galleries of an old theatre. The light falls in at an angle and catches the round arches one by one. Few places in Stuttgart feel this enclosed and this calm, even though the city runs on all sides.

This is the Old Castle, known in German as the Altes Schloss. It is the oldest surviving seat of power in the city. For centuries, the counts and later the dukes of Württemberg ruled from here. Today the building holds the Landesmuseum Württemberg, the state museum. But before you go inside, it helps to know why a castle stands here at all.

The story begins with horses. The name Stuttgart comes from an old word for a stud farm, a place where mares were bred. Historians generally trace the city's origins to a stud farm in this valley in the tenth century. A fortified site grew up to protect it. You can still see a black horse on the city's coat of arms. So the castle and the city share the same beginning.

The first fortress here was a moated castle. Water once surrounded it, and that water was part of its defence. It was a practical, defensive building, made for a valley that needed protecting. Over the following centuries the castle grew. The family that held it, the house of Württemberg, also grew in power, from local lords to counts, and later to dukes.

What you see today is mostly the work of the sixteenth century. In that period, a duke named Christoph turned the medieval stronghold into a Renaissance residence. Renaissance means the style that spread from Italy, with clear proportions, arcades and symmetry. Look at the courtyard again. Those stacked galleries were not made for defence. They were made for display, for walking, for watching ceremonies below. The castle changed from a fortress into a stage.

Now here is a detail many visitors miss. In one corner of the courtyard there is a wide spiral ramp inside a tower. It is often called the Riders' Staircase. It has no steep steps. Instead, the slope rises gently. The design allowed a rider to go up to the upper floors while still on horseback. For a city named after a stud farm, that seems fitting.

In the courtyard you will also find a mounted statue. It shows Count Eberhard, often called Eberhard the Bearded, who became the first Duke of Württemberg in the late fifteenth century. He is remembered as a founder of the university in Tübingen. Locals tell a tale about him from an old German poem. Several princes compared the riches of their lands. Eberhard said his greatest treasure was simple: he could rest his head in the lap of any of his subjects and sleep safely. It is a legend, but Stuttgart still repeats it with pride.

The castle also holds a chapel. It dates from the sixteenth century and is counted among the earliest church buildings in the region designed for Protestant worship. That matters because Württemberg became a Protestant duchy after the Reformation, the split in Western Christianity in that century. Beneath the chapel there is a burial vault. Members of the ruling family were laid to rest there, including kings of Württemberg from a later age.

The building you are standing in is not entirely original stone. In the 1930s, a major fire swept through parts of the castle and caused heavy damage. Then, during the Second World War, bombing struck central Stuttgart hard, and the castle was badly hit again. Restoration after the war took many years. So when you look at these walls, you are looking at old forms rebuilt with great care. Some surfaces are centuries old. Others are much younger, and that is part of the story too.

Step back outside and look at the outer walls. The castle has heavy round towers at its corners. These towers carry the memory of the older fortress. Compare them with the light arcades of the courtyard. Outside, the building looks closed and strong. Inside, it opens up. That contrast between a defensive shell and an open interior is the clearest way to read the castle's long history.

The neighbourhood around you also tells a story. On one side lies Schillerplatz, a square named after the poet Friedrich Schiller, whose statue stands there. On another side is Schlossplatz, the large open square in front of the New Palace. That later palace was built in the eighteenth century, when the dukes wanted something grander and more modern. So the old seat and the new one face each other across a few hundred metres of open ground.

Inside, the museum covers the long history of the region. The collections reach from early archaeology to the art and objects of the Württemberg court. Among the most famous treasures are the crown jewels of the kings of Württemberg. If you have time, the museum gives the castle walls a human scale. You see the cups, coins, clothes and tools of the people who lived under these rulers.

Before you leave, return to the courtyard if you can. Stand near the middle and turn slowly in a full circle. Notice the rhythm of the arches, the way each floor repeats the one below. Notice the tower with its gentle ramp. Notice the bronze rider in the centre. Then walk out toward the squares and the traffic of the modern city. The black horse on Stuttgart's coat of arms began right here, behind these walls.