Stuttgart, places to visit?

A city to be lived

The capital of Baden-Württemberg, known throughout the world as the capital of the automobile industry and centre of one of the most economically active regions of Germany, Stuttgart is also well worth visiting for its artistic and cultural heritage, activities and events, architectural masterpieces and beautiful surrounding countryside.

Stuttgart.

Walking through the centre of the city you come across wonders such as the old castle (Altes Schloss), the new Baroque castle (Neues Schloss) and the covered Art Nouveau market (Markthalle).

The Old Castle Altes Schloss

The rooms inside the Altes Schloss, with its picturesque internal porticoed courtyard, house the Württemberg museum. A short distance away stands the sumptuous Neues Schloss, the New Castle. The castle square, dominated by a 30-metre high column, is the heart of the city and a popular meeting place.

Stuttgart. The Old Castle Altes Schloss.

One of the most important and world-renowned monuments of modern architecture is the residential quarter of Weißenhofsiedlung built in 1927. The covered Art Nouveau market, erected between 1912 and 1914, is one of the most beautiful in Germany. Every day it is filled with fresh flowers, fish, meat, fruit and vegetables, exotic products and spices. On the first floor there is a small restaurant and a gallery.

Theaters, gallery and museum in Stuttgart

Stuttgart, also capital of musicals, has more than 40 theatres, 30 galleries and three large art museums.

The Opernhaus, the opera house built between 1909-1912, is home to the “Staatstheater Stuttgart”, a company performing innovative plays and performances.

The National Art Gallery, the Staatsgalerie, houses one of the most important art collections in Germany, while the Stuttgart Art Museum displays, in a sensational building shaped like a glass cube, a valuable art collection including the largest survey exhibition in the world devoted to the German painter and engraver Otto Dix.

Stuttgart. The Opera House.

The Württemberg State Museum in the Old Castle extensively illustrates local art and history with works of art ranging from Stone Age artefacts to the ancient jewels of the Kingdom of Württemberg. The newart gallery, Neue Staatsgalerie, documents all the creative stages of Picasso.

Stuttgart. Porsche Museum.

Don’t miss the two car museums: the Mercedes Benz museum, showing more than 100 years of automobile history, and the Porsche museum, displaying the legendary fast sports cars.

Königstraße and Schulstraße are the principal shopping streets in the centre with coffee houses and street artists animating the pedestrian area. Schulstraße connects Königstraße to the Marktplatz and is dotted with fashion stores and food ìshops. There are many enchanting shops in Calwer Straße behind pretty gabled houses and old timber-framed buildings. In the Bohnen quarter, near to the Marktplatz, there is much to discover including wine shops, international food stores and small shops selling unusual items.

Gardens and parks in Stuttgart

More than half the city is covered in parks and ponds. The magnificent Castle Gardens around the New Castle are outstanding with pretty ponds, sculptures and flower beds, and offer an oasis of peace at any time of the year. A visit to Wilhelma, the largest zoological and botanical garden in Europe, is a fantastic experience for the whole family. Situated in a large historic park with Moorish buildings, beautiful gardens, hothouses and an aquarium, Wilhelma is famous for its area devoted to apes and monkeys.

Stuttgart. Wilhelma Botanical and Zoological Garden.

After Budapest, Stuttgart is one of the principal spa cities in Europe and can boast the largest “natural reservoir” of mineral waters in western Europe with three spas and 19 public springs.

The cuisine of Stuttgart

For people who enjoy good food and drink, Stuttgart has an excellent choice of Swabian restaurants and welcoming wine bars serving a rich selection of regional cooking such as “Spätzle” - soft dumplings - and “Maultaschen” - similar to ravioli cooked preferably in broth.

Text by Luca Lembi

Updated by Nicolò Villa

Avion Tourism Magazine

Photos: © Sisterscom.com, Shutterstock

Video: www.stuttgart-tourist.de

Tourism Board

www.stuttgart-tourist.de

Partnership with Booking.com

Where to sleep in Stuttgart

Stuttgart.

Stuttgart is a welcoming city and offers different possibilities for accommodation.

To find the ideal hotel and the best offers you can do a search for the stars but also for districts or landmarks.

STARS

Hotels for stars, differentiated by type of services:

DISTRICTS

Hotels in the districts

Old Town

LANDMARKS

Hotels in tourist areas

Castle Square

Children Youth Theater

Lindenmuseum

Mercedes-Benz-Museum

National Gallery Stuttgart

Staatsgalerie Stuttgart

LANDMARKS

Hotels in tourist areas

Stage Apollo Theater

Stage Palladium Theater

State Theater

Theaterhaus Stuttgart

Theatre of Old Town

University of Stuttgart

AIRPORT

Hotels near the airports

Stuttgart Airport (STR)

WHERE TO GO in Stuttgart

Monuments in Stuttgart

OPERA HOUSE

The Stuttgart Opera House was built between 1909 and 1912 by Max Littmann in sandstone and then restored between 1983 and 1984. Born as a royal court theater, it is one of the most renowned buildings of late historicism. Today it is the theatrical stage of the corps de ballet and of the opera company of the city of Stuttgart.

SCHLOSSPLATZ (PALACE SQUARE)

The Palace Square in Stuttgart (Schlossplatz) houses in its centre the 1845 Jubilee Column, which is surmounted by the goddess Concordia. Both the New Palace and the Old Palace can be found here. The Old Palace is home to the state history museum, the Landesmuseum Württemberg, where the Stuttgart Christmas Market is held each year in the inner quadrangle. Also found on the square is the Kunstgebäude, which houses contemporary art exhibitions. The building has a domed roof surmounted by a golden deer. The palace gardens sit between the Kunstgebäude and the New Palace and are overlooked by the Opera House and the Landtag Parliament building. The Königstraße pedestrian street leads off Schlossplatz square and is the ideal place for shopping, especially in the Königsbau shopping centre right in front of the New Palace.

NEUES SCHLOSS PALACE (NEW CASTLE or PALACE)

The Neues Schloss (New Palace) is an imposing Baroque-style castle built in 1746 by Duke Carl Eugen of Württemberg. It features a central body, a garden wing and two side wings that form a horseshoe-shaped courtyard. The only decorative elements on the simple façades are sculptures that adorn the balustrades. In later years a dome was added to the central body as well as Rococo decorations on the garden wing and the central body. The Neues Schloss remained the residence of the kings of Württemberg until the middle of the last century. The palace, destroyed by bombing in 1944 and rebuilt between 1958 and 1964, is home to the ministries of the government of Baden-Württemberg.

CASTLE SOLITUDE

Solitude Palace is located in the wooded areas to the west of Stuttgart and overlooks the city centre. Commissioned by the Duke Carl Eugen, a, lover of hunting and nature, it was built between 1764 and 1775 in Rococo style as a quiet place to receive guests. Solitude Palace is connected to the Residence of Ludwigsburg by a twelve-kilometre straight road. From 1972 to 1983 it underwent restoration and later became the home of the Solitude Academy, which offers accommodation and scholarships to international artists and cultural events that are open to the public.

Museums of Stuttgart

ST. JOHN'S CHURCH (Museum)

The Church of St. John of Stuttgart dates back to the 12th century and is deconsecrated. The Johanniterkirche Church in its Schwäbisch Hall offers a truly impressive exhibition space with masterpieces by Cranach, Riemenschneider and other famous artists. The church and its collection of eminent art treasures can be admired as a complete work of art that offers a wonderful overview of southern Germany in the early modern period, dominated by religious themes.

KUNSTMUSEUM STUTTGART

Kunstmuseum Stuttgart has been located in the Palace Square (Schlossplatz) since 2005. The building is elegant with a glass structure that is illuminated at night. Inside, the tunnel path designed by architects Hascher and Jehle acts as an exhibition space for masterpieces owned by the City of Stuttgart. The collection includes over 15,000 works of modern and contemporary art. The collection of works by artist Otto Dix is well renowned, as well as those by Adolf Hölzel, Willi Baumeister, Fritz Winter and Dieter Roth. The museum also houses a wonderful panoramic restaurant.

STAATSGALERIE PICTURE GALLERY

Known as the New Staatsgalerie, the Stuttgart Art Gallery (Staatsgalerie Stuttgart) is important for postmodern architecture and for its the collection of seven centuries of history. To the original structure, the Old Staatsgalerie built by King William I of Württemberg between 1838 and 1843, an extension was added in 1984 by the star architect James Stirling. The permanent collection presents works of German, Italian, Dutch art and paintings of the Swabian classicism. Among the many works of the 20th century, there are those of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Wassily Kandinsky, Oskar Schlemmer, Joseph Beuys, Richard Deacon and Pablo Picasso.

REGIONAL HISTORICAL MUSEUM OF WURTTEMBERG

The Old Castle houses the Regional Historical Museum of Württemberg, founded in 1862 by King William I. You can admire a historic collection of the Land that recalls 80,000 years of cultural history of the Württemberg area, from the Stone Age to the present day. The regional historical collections are also integrated by art collections of international level. The visit is also interesting for children who, thanks to the many interactive positions of the museum, have a good time learning.

PORSCHE MUSEUM

Ferdinand Porsche created a museum dedicated to his brand, and the new headquarters (established 2009) overlook Porscheplatz, where Porsche cars have been produced since 1950. The futuristic building, designed by the Delugan Meissl architectural firm, rests on three V-shaped pillars. More than 80 cars and 200 smaller objects are exhibited in the museum. Here you can see a reproduction of the Type 64 body as found on the 356 No. 1 roadster, the 356 Coupé Ferdinand from the 1950s and the 356 speedster 1500. On the ground floor of the museum there is also a workshop with technicians at work, who can be observed through the glass window in the bar area.

MERCEDES-BENZ MUSEUM

The Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart exhibits 130 years of automobile history from its origins until today and beyond. It starts from 1886 with the invention of the car by Gottlieb Daimler and Carl Benz. The museum exhibition leads to the milestones of the Mercedes-Benz brand: super sports cars, Silver Arrows and cars with gull-wing wings. Furthermore, the museum reveals research, design, development and production of the car. 160 vehicles and over 1,500 related objects can be admired. The "Rooms of Myth" tell the story of the Mercedes-Benz brand for themes and eras. The "rooms of the collection" show the vehicles of the brand in a thematic order.

Excursions in Stuttgart

HOHENZOLLERN CASTLE

Hohenzollern Castle is a Neogothic fortress that sits almost 900 metres above the Swabian mountain range. Defended by turrets and battlements, its construction began in 1852 and ended in 1867. Its interior features 140 rooms, including the frescoed library, the royal bedroom, the family tree room, the "Blue Salon" and the queen's room. The crown of Emperor Wilhelm II is displayed in the treasure chamber along with other treasures. The entrance hall is decorated with a painting of the Hohenzollern genealogical tree and features Prussian kings, German emperors and their descendants up to the present day.

TUBINGA

The university city of Tübingen is known for its riverfront, the market square, the town hall and the Neptune fountain. The town hall, built in 1435, preserves a still functioning astronomical clock from 1511. The characteristic steep stairs, the narrow alleys and the architecture of the elongated houses can be admired along the historical center up to the castle. Don't miss a boat trip on the Neckar River to see from a different perspective the picturesque buildings overlooking the riverfront and the Hölderlin tower.

Partnership with GetYourGuide

Tours

News & Useful info