Schloss Rastatt

Ludwig Wilhelm of Baden-Baden — Türkenlouis to his soldiers — began Rastatt in 1700, after the Turkish wars had made his name and the French had destroyed his old seat. Domenico Egidio Rossi designed it, and it became the first large Baroque residence in the German south-west, its Versailles-derived plan imitated afterwards by lesser princes across the region. A gilded Jupiter still balances on the roof. The palace today holds a military history museum and the national memorial to the German freedom movements, Rastatt having been the last fortress to hold out in the Baden rising of 1849; the court in front of the façade serves for performance in the open air.