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Guide · ArchitectureFrom the Renaissance courtyard of the Old Palace to the burial chapel on the Württemberg: the buildings that shape Stuttgart, and where to find them.
Stuttgart reads to most people as a car city and an engineering city. But between the Kessel, the steep valley basin holding the center, and the vineyards above it there is a surprising amount of old stone: palaces built by the dukes and kings of Württemberg, a late Gothic collegiate church, neoclassical mausoleums and a station tower that became an icon of early modernism. Below are the buildings that matter, sorted by era and location, plus what to know before you go.
The historic heart of the city sits at Schillerplatz and Schlossplatz in Stuttgart-Mitte. The two palaces stand only a few steps apart.
The Old Palace grew out of a medieval moated castle and was rebuilt in the 16th century as a Renaissance residence. The showpiece is the three-story arcaded courtyard, one of the finest Renaissance courtyards in southern Germany.
Today the building houses the Landesmuseum Württemberg, with collections running from the Stone Age to courtly art. Inside is also the palace church, a burial place of the House of Württemberg.
Right on Schlossplatz stands the New Palace, a baroque and neoclassical residence from the 18th century. It was heavily destroyed in World War II and rebuilt over the postwar decades.
State ministries use it now, and the interior opens only for special occasions. The facade and the square in front of it, with its jubilee column and fountains, are freely accessible at any time and function as the city's central meeting point.
Stuttgart's sacred architecture is where the city's habit of setting historic fabric next to postwar modernism is easiest to read.
The most important church in the old town stands at Schillerplatz. The late Gothic hall church with its two mismatched towers is the principal church of the Protestant regional church in Württemberg and has been the burial place of the ruling house for centuries. Inside, a Renaissance series of portraits recalls the counts of Württemberg.
Like many buildings downtown, it was restored after war damage.
Not far away stands the Hospitalkirche, whose late Gothic choir survived while the nave was rebuilt in a modern form. It is a clear example of how Stuttgart puts historic substance and postwar modernism side by side.
The Eberhardskirche is another of the churches that shape the inner city.
The most spectacular palace complexes are not downtown but up on the heights and out in the outer districts.
High above the city between Stuttgart-West and Gerlingen, Duke Carl Eugen had Schloss Solitude built in the 18th century as a hunting and pleasure palace. The elegant rococo building sits on a ridge with a long view, and a dead-straight historic sight axis connects it to the palace at Ludwigsburg.
The interiors are accessible on guided tours.
Schloss Rosenstein, in the park between Stuttgart-Nord and Bad Cannstatt, is a neoclassical building from the reign of King Wilhelm I and today holds part of the natural history museum.
In the Hohenheim borough stands the baroque Schloss Hohenheim, now the seat of the University of Hohenheim, surrounded by historic gardens.
One of the most romantic structures in the city stands above the vineyards of Rotenberg, in the district of Untertürkheim.
King Wilhelm I had the old ancestral castle of the Württembergs torn down and, in its place, commissioned his court architect Giovanni Salucci to build a neoclassical burial chapel for his wife Katharina, who had died young. The rotunda with its Ionic columns takes its cue from Palladio's Villa Rotonda and from the Roman Pantheon, and was completed in 1824.
Above the door runs the line Die Liebe höret nimmer auf, love never ends. From the hilltop you get one of the widest views over the Neckar valley and the vines.
The most consequential 20th-century building in the city is the main station by Paul Bonatz.
The massive shell-limestone structure with its distinctive tower counts as a key work between historicism and modernism, and it terminates the Königstraße at its northern end.
As part of the Stuttgart 21 project, the terminus station is being rebuilt as an underground through station. The listed Bonatzbau itself is being preserved, while parts of the old track apron and the side wings have been removed. Opening the new underground station has been postponed repeatedly and, as of mid-2026, is expected at the earliest in late 2027. The Infoturm Stuttgart gives you an overview of where the project stands.
Not every monument in Stuttgart is a single building. Some entire quarters are the monument.
The Bohnenviertel in Stuttgart-Mitte is one of the few largely intact old-town quarters, with small-scale artisan buildings, narrow lanes and interior courtyards. The name translates roughly as the bean quarter, after the beans that residents once grew on their facades.
If you like architectural history, pair it with the Markthalle, an Art Nouveau market hall directly behind the Old Palace, and with the Hegel-Haus, the philosopher's birthplace and one of the surviving historic townhouses downtown.
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The Old Palace at Schillerplatz goes back to a medieval moated castle of the 10th century and was expanded into a Renaissance residence in the 16th century. That makes it the oldest surviving palace building in the city center.
The New Palace is used by state ministries today and the interior is only accessible for special occasions or individual events. The facade and Schlossplatz are open to everyone at any time.
The Grabkapelle stands on the Württemberg hill above Stuttgart-Rotenberg in the district of Untertürkheim, in the middle of the vineyards, with a wide view over the Neckar valley.
The listed Bonatzbau is being preserved. The Stuttgart 21 project is building an underground through station alongside it, whose opening has been delayed and, as of mid-2026, is expected at the earliest in late 2027.
Guided tours make Stirling, UNStudio and Stuttgart modernism legible.
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