Stuttgart | Mausoleum

„Love Never Ends“ – Württemberg Mausoleum

As one of Baden-Württemberg‘s main attractions, visible from afar, highly frequented and at the same time a landmark of the region, the illuminated mausoleum has since shaped Stuttgart‘s nightscape.

In 1815, at the other end of the world, the Indonesian volcano Tambora erupted. The devastating explosion created a gigantic cloud of smoke that, after traveling halfway around the globe, reached Central Europe 12 months later. The “year without sun” followed. Crop failures, poverty, and famine plagued the Kingdom of Württemberg at this time. In order to alleviate the hardship of the rural population, Queen Katharina began with special dedication to develop a social structure. The founding of the folk festival and thus the Cannstatter Wasen also occurred during this time.

King Wilhelm I built the mausoleum on the Württemberg (hill) in honor of Katharina, who died young and was beloved by the population. The memorial to Katharina Pavlovna, which was built as a chapel, is the stone testimony to a love that never fades. The Italian court-architect Giovanni Salucci built the chapel between 1820 – 1824 in a visible location on the Württemberg, the former site of the ancestral castle of the House of Württemberg. Approximately 20 meters high and 24 meters in diameter, the cylindrical main building, whose four porticoes point in the cardinal directions, stands among the vineyards and looks out over Stuttgart.

In August 2015, the aging luminaires used for lighting the chapel were about to be replaced. Initially, the aim was to refurbish the existing luminaires with modern, effective LED technology. However, a detailed consultation with Studio DL made it clear that a fundamentally new lighting concept was needed.

Excellently preserved plans and blueprints enabled an uncomplicated creation of a precise 3D model. This allowed the lighting planners to discuss the first ideas together with the Stuttgart office of Vermögen und Bau Baden-Württemberg as early as the fall of the same year and to coordinate with them using a virtual lighting mock-up by the following spring. The appropriate applications, coordination, continuation of planning, and the necessary approvals allowed the start of civil engineering work at the end of 2017 and the installation of the lighting system in spring 2018. The placement of all lighting elements was determined in consultation with the lower historic preservation authorities and the State Office for the Preservation of Historical Monuments. Through lighting demos done on site, the final luminaires were selected from a portfolio of several manufacturers with the input from all planning partners, which fulfilled the initial idea.

The central cylinder is illuminated in a homogenous, discreet, and understated manner. In the area around the columns the porticos are accentuated by adjustable recessed floor luminaires, while the tympanum stands out in warm white, almost golden light as a decorative architectural element, corresponding with the golden cross on the copper dome. With the approval of the historic preservation authorities, recessed floor lights could be precisely built into the steps just below the columns by a stonemason.

Environmental aspects played just as important a role in the lighting of the mausoleum, located in the middle of a landscape conservation area, as the aesthetic showcasing of the architectural monument from close-up and at a distance and were discussed with the Department for Environmental Protection of the Landeshauptstadt Stuttgart (AFU). Thus, the control system of the new lighting design allows for the reduction of the luminous flux used, i.e. the amount of light emitted by the luminaires, by 70%. Since the system only runs until one o’clock at night, the operating time is reduced by 48%. The total power used is also reduced by 45% due to the dimming of individual luminaires, among other things.

With this contemporary lighting design for the mausoleum, Studio DL combines concerns for aesthetics, technology and environmental protection in equal measure. The smooth implementation process at the monument, and the harmonious effect of the lighting design is the result of a very committed and interdisciplinary project team, which enjoyed working on this project.