Wirtemberg Castle

On the Rotenberg hill near Stuttgart, Castle Wirtemberg, the namesake seat of the House and Land of Wuerttemberg, stood until 1819. Built in 1080, it survived destructions in the 14th and 16th centuries and was rebuilt each time. King Wilhelm I had the deteriorating castle torn down in 1819 to build the Sepulchral Chapel on the Wuerttemberg, a classical rotunda in Italian style, for his young wife Queen Catherine Pavlovna who had died early. Wilhelm chose the inscription Love Never Ends for the entrance. Today the chapel is the burial site of the royal couple and their elder daughter, set among vineyards overlooking the Neckar valley and central Stuttgart. The chapel is open April through November.