Everyday Life at the PalaceRituals of Past Times
During the guided tour, you keep getting a queasy feeling in your stomach. But this isn't just about ghost stories. Funeral rites and beauty rituals of the past are also covered. Did you know that when a person died, they used to open the window to let the soul escape? And that it was considered beautiful for noble ladies to have large pupils? So they dripped belladonna - deadly nightshade - into their eyes. This dilated the pupils - it was considered beautiful at that time. Look at the portrait of Princess Sophia of Thurn and Taxis in the Ancestral Gallery. You can see the result: In the portrait, she has dark, huge-looking eyes. You should never try belladonna drops, however, because they can blind you. Other beauty rituals sound even more bizarre to today's visitors: for example, the blood of young animals was used to make skin creams richer.
Does guide Kerstin Frisch ever get scared? "Rarely," she says, adding:
„So far, we have gotten every guest out of here safely.“
Guide Kerstin Frisch
"Here" in this case is a stately four-wing castle with 452 rooms. The small hunting lodge that once stood here was converted into a residential palace by the Dukes of Württemberg at the beginning of the 18th century. The result was a mixture of baroque, rococo and classicist styles.
Today, the glamorous parts of the building house museums: In the fashion museum, a fashion show with original clothing from the 18th to 20th centuries is on display. The ceramics museum showcases Ludwigsburg porcelain. And younger guests can have fun in the interactive 'Kinderreich' Museum.
However, the 'Eerily Beautiful' tour does not go through the exhibitions. Stops on your tour include the grotto, the wine cellar, the ancestral gallery, the palace theater and the palace church. Many dukes and duchesses lie in the crypt there. They were buried there from 1730. Kerstin Frisch says this almost casually. A bit creepy, isn't it?
