Step into a stunning 16th-century Renaissance palace in Stuttgart, where Swabia's rich history from Stone Age to modern times comes alive with original artifacts and beautiful architecture.
Altes Schloss, Schillerpl. 6, 70173 Stuttgart, Germany Get directions
"Built in the early 14th century, this castle once served as the residence of Baden Württemberg’s counts and dukes. It was initially moated, but wings and other elements were added in the mid-16th century to create the current Renaissance palace. Today, the building houses the Landesmuseum Württemberg (Württemberg State Museum), which traces the region’s development from the Stone Age through the present day. In two separate exhibitions, history comes alive through ancient art, Celtic works, Roman treasures, sacred objects from the Middle Ages, and the crown jewels of the kings of Württemberg. Visitors can also look forward to a lapidarium full of reliefs and sculptures that provide insight into Roman culture and religion, as well as the House of Music, which features a highly valuable keyboard and other orchestral instruments. There’s even a castle exhibition set up just for kids, with entertaining ways for younger visitors to learn all about Württemberg."
An excellent museum with a great selection of exhibits: amazing ornamental glass in the basement, and upstairs, prehistoric/Roman/celtic/medieval and beyond. Three floors but note that (when I visited) nog all opened together (basement closed/1st floor opened at 1pm) so time accordingly... but there's loads here to keep you busy.
Beavis Alex
Google
Plus:
Very Accessible
Not pricy entrance
Nice arcade courtyard
Comfy chairs
Minus:
Lack of good management:
- no info or guidance of the event outside
- the movie event was supposed to begin at 18:30 but began at 19:00.
- chairs without reservation make people to move, when large groups want to stay together.
- the doors open very late so people with needs stayed outside longer.
- very cold foyer for a long movie and not pleasant with light of the windows near the screen.
- very narrow way on the left of the chairs. People had difficulties getting in and out (poor architecture design). Can lead to dangerous hazard.
- bad sound.
I do not recommend this place for movies, maybe other types of events suits this place better. An architect will fix some problems that are not spotted by a average manager. It is a wonderful place but with a lack of good management can lead to an unpleasant evening.
Rob the Nomad
Google
This museum houses ancient & historical pieces of the locals from hundreds of years ago, but its wrapped in this interesting architectually designed building with multi-level arched balconys, circular windows, turret on each corner, metal statue of previous king all surrounding a central courtyard, very nice to see
Виктория Зайцева
Google
A wonderful collection of artifacts. She was surprised to learn that these were all originals. Very attentive staff. He will always give you tips or tell you something interesting. Take the museum plan. A must visit.
David Cohen
Google
Incredible collection, extremely cool museum.
Katherine Weatherly
Google
What a great experience. Top notch staff and exhibits. As a solo traveler from the US, they were very accommodating of my broken German and spoke English well. Absolute must when in Stuttgart!
WS Lim
Google
Love the parts that it shared the concurrent events happening in various regions.
Aseret VG (ALG20)
Google
Amazing museum! If you love museums you will need at least 5-6 hours to visit all the exhibitions. My only comment is that it will be nice to have everything translated to English (at least). The audio tour doesn't work in all the cases and I was informed the numbers do not always match the exhibition. But in general this is a very nice museum. Highly recommended!!
I was staying at the Ruby Hanna hotel and it was only a 12 min walk from the Hotel!
Mary R.
Yelp
This Old Castle-located museum tells the story of the region from the Iron Age until the 19th Century. Many of the overall panels are in English much most of the exhibition is in German. They probably have an English audio guide but I would rather just look.
It is hard to see everything in one day. I started in the Iron Age and then was just exhausted and ran through the final century. I had low expectations for this museum and was pleasantly surprised to see that the artifacts here are high-quality and in the source location. This area really was a heartland of early human history, even the Romans had territory here. This location is also an important part of Celtic history. So much importance! This region is really (like many parts of the world) a crossroad of culture.
Anyway, wear good shoes, you are walking on old marble castle floors. The lighting of the artifacts is understandably low-- it makes taking photographs nigh impossible. They DO carry a lovely coffee table book of their collection in the gift shop. Online, their complete collection appears to be archived and online for display as well.
They have a lovely gift shop (with great scarves) and a cafe with coffee and food. Entrance fee is 6 Euros per adult, very reasonable.
Henry M.
Yelp
The location inside the old castle aka palace is quite spectacular. So definitely worth a go, but well... still a museum with some more boring stuff. Sometimes in the court of the castle you can listen to open air concerts.