Ludwigsburg Palace (German: Residenzschloss Ludwigsburg) is a massive, Baroque palace complex located in Ludwigsburg, Germany, about 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) from the Baden-Württemberg state capital of Stuttgart. The palace complex, nicknamed the "Versailles of Swabia" is one of the largest Baroque palaces in Germany, and one of its most prominent features is the enormous garden around the palace of the same style. Today, its sumptuous interiors contain various museums and tourist shops.

The castle is surrounded on three sides by a massive garden, the Blühendes Barock (or "Blooming Baroque") that was arranged according to how it might have appeared around 1800 in 1954, the 250th anniversary of the start of construction on Ludwigsburg. Also on the grounds are the ancillary residencies of Monrepos and Schloss Favorite, which complete the grounds of this regional tourist attraction. Altogether, the gardens, sumptuous interiors complete with original furnishing, and the architecture altogether tell the tale of four distinct epochs of art and architecture: the Baroque, Rococo, Neoclassical, and Empire eras.

In the days before the palace of the 17th century a hunting property with a falconry stood on the site of the current palace before it was razed to the ground by French soldiers in 1697. A few years later, Duke Eberhard Louis of Württemberg visited the French king Louis XIV and his court and was so inspired by the Palace of Versailles that he decided to build his own to reflect his own dreams of an absolutist Württemberg. So it was that master builder Philipp Joseph Jenisch was commissioned to design and construct a new hunting retreat and pleasure palace for Eberhard Louis, who himself laid the foundation of what would become the largest Baroque palace in Germany on 7 May 1704. The next year, Eberhard Louis, in German Eberhard Ludwig, christened his new palace "Ludwigsburg," literally "Ludwig's castle."

Jenisch worked on the palace for two years, only managing to construct the ground floor and walls of the planned hunting lodge that later became the old corps de logis and most of the southern gardens, before being replaced by the new and experienced court architect, Johann Fredrich Nette, when the duke lost faith in Jenisch's ability as an architect and hired Nette in 1707. This would be the first time a non-native of Württemberg would lead work on the palace. Nette completed the Old corp de logis but began drawing up new plans based on his experience with Bohemian Baroque. Nette erected two new buildings: the play and hunting pavilions, constructed from 1707 to 1716. Then, and to the indignation of the Ducal court, he linked the old corps de logis and the pavilions with two new wings, creating his desired three-wing system. For the upcoming construction on the interiors of the palace, Nette traveled to Prague and there recruited architect and stuccoist Donato Giuseppe Frisoni in 1709, future project lead for the palace. By 1714, Nette had completed most of the northern gardens by 1714, freeing him up for a trip to Paris once the War of the Spanish Succession ended the following year with the Treaty of Utrecht. Unfortunately, on his way back from Paris to Ludwigsburg, he died suddenly from a stroke, aged 41.

Ever following the model of Versailles and needing a new city to service the needs of his palace, Eberhard Louis desired to build the ideal baroque city to encompass his palace as a symbol of his power and prestige. To this end, he had construction of the city begun in 1704 and charged Donato Frisoni with its design. Starting in 1709, the Duke began inviting people to come live in his city, enticing potential settlers with offers of free land, financing for construction materials, 15 years without taxation and, later, complete freedom of religion and occupation. However, actual construction in the city stalled until the duke first swore that he would reside in the palace at the center of the city, and then second granted Ludwigsburg status as a city and declared it his capital in 1718. The city's designer and chief architect, Donato Frisoni, became the city's first mayor and held this position until his death in 1735.

The same year as Nette's death, Duke Eberhard Louis appointed Donato Frisoni, who had no formal training in architecture, as lead architect on the site of the palace in addition to the city of Ludwigsburg despite opposition to this from the building commission. He mostly continued the work of Nette, but made his own additions such as the two chapels facing each other on the east and west sides of the palace and the two Cavalier halls on the east and west wings in 1722. However, Frisoni's most important addition was the new corps de logis which, on the orders of the duke himself, was constructed from 1724 to 1733 because the old corps de logis was too small for his ceremonies. This new main structure and the east and west wings of the palace were completed in 1733. Meanwhile, Frisoni built what has been hailed as "the ideal Baroque city," and dedicated its main square, flanked by two large Protestant and Catholic churches, to the city's founder and namesake, Duke Eberhard Louis.

The palace theater (Europe's oldest preserved theater) and its stage machinery, from 1758, are still operational.

In the 1740s a New Palace was built in Stuttgart, and it was favored by the later dukes of Württemberg as their primary residence, but Ludwigsburg remained in use as well. However, under King William I of Württemberg, the palace, and especially the gardens, gradually decayed because William I, in contrast to his predecessors, showed no interest in Ludwigsburg. He favored his own palatial projects at Wilhelma (Moorish) and Rosenstein (Neoclassical) in Stuttgart.

Duke Charles Eugene moved the official residence of the Dukes from Stuttgart from the Old Castle (official residence of the Dukes in the 15th century) in Stuttgart after calling it "prison-like." From the castle's construction to the death of Duke Charles Eugene, Ludwigsburg served as the ducal palace and seat of power in Württemberg for a total of 28 years.

With Duke Eberhard Louis's death, ascension of his cousin Charles Alexander, and move of power back to Stuttgart by Charles Alexander, the population of Ludwigsburg was reduced by half and did not return to its original size until Duke Charles Eugene moved the capital back to Ludwigsburg in 1764.

Charlotte, Princess Royal of the United Kingdom and daughter of King George III, married Frederick, Elector, Duke and then King of Württemberg, 18 May 1797 at St James's Palace in Westminster. In 1800, the peaceful atmosphere of the court in Stuttgart was disturbed by Napoleon Bonaparte marching an army into Württemberg, prompting the Duke and Duchess to flee to Vienna even as French soldiers entered the city. There, Frederick was able to return to his Duchy and be made an Elector, and later a King, in the Holy Roman Empire in exchange for territorial concessions to the French and military aid rendered to Napoleon. King George III who, in a bout of his infamous mental illness, refused to recognize his daughter as Queen of Württemberg, even when Frederick returned to the British fold in 1813 nor when the couple's status as monarchs was confirmed at the Congress of Vienna in 1814. When Frederick died three years later, Charlotte received many notable visitors from across Europe at Ludwigsburg Palace, among them some of her siblings. The Dowager Queen died 5 October 1828 following a bout of illness and she was interred in the Württemberg family vault.

When Duke Carl Alexander died suddenly at Ludwigsburg palace on 12 March 1737 as he was preparing to leave for a military inspection of the various fortresses in the duchy. The duke's equally unpopular Jewish minister of the economy, Joseph Suss Oppenheimer, was at Ludwigsburg palace having arrived by coach.

In 1946, the trial of 15 of the 23 perpetrators of the Borkum Island Massacre took place in the palace. The trials began 6 February and lasted until 22 March 1946. Many of the defendants paid a heavy price for their actions in the abuses and murders of seven American soldiers.

Ludwigsburg palace played an extremely important role in the musical scene of Württemberg.

One of the 18 buildings of the residential palace is the Schlosskirche (German: Castle church). The interior of the final resting place of several members of the House of Württemberg was decorated by Diego Carlone with his unique style of stucco sculpture.

Despite the efforts of some southern German architects, the inevitable spread of the Baroque style into the Holy Roman Empire had been halted in the mid-17th century by the ravages of the Thirty Years War. From the 1650s onward, the Baroque style bloomed in the Holy Roman Empire. The construction of the Palace of Versailles by French King Louis XIV that revolutionized palace construction in Europe. A new style of palace, a French one, came over Europe even as the political power of France diminished and was replaced with Austria. In Austria, an up-and-coming architect named Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach began the construction of Schönbrunn Palace in 1625, and his work set the tone for a new era of Versailles-inspired palaces across the Holy Roman Empire. Many palaces, Ludwigsburg included, would follow in this wake. German Baroque architects such as Balthasar Neumann, Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann, and Christoph Dientzenhofer set to work building new Baroque masterpieces throughout Germany such as the world famous Würzburg Residence, which incorporated features of the preceding Austro-Italian as well as French Baroque styles into a masterful new palace.

Ludwigsburg Palace is built in a French Baroque model in the style of Versailles; like many other German princes, Eberhard Louis chose to abandon his traditional for a grand baroque palace in the image of Versailles. As was typical in Württemberg, the French influence on the palace is obvious, but there are elements that stand out such as the simple ornamentation of the Palace's windows. This can be largely attributed to Donato Frisoni's hand, as he, like his predecessor Nette, worked in the Bohemian and employed almost exclusively Italians for his staff and workers. Of the three major undertakings of 18th century secular Swabian architecture, Ludwigsburg, the largest Baroque palace in Germany, is the most important.

The main architects involved in the construction and later refurbishment of the site were Johann Friedrich Nette (from 1704 to 1714), Donato Giuseppe Frisoni (from 1714 to 1733), Philippe de La Guêpière (1757–1758), who built the Palace Theater and refurbished the corps de logis in the Rococo style, and some modifications by Friedrich Nicolaus Thouret for King Frederick I.

The initial design by Philipp Jenisch was for a three-winged Baroque palace that included the Neues Herrschaftsgebäude, a preexisting structure that entered construction four years prior to Jenisch's design, as its unattached east wing, the corp de logis, and the north wing of the palace north wing would be attached to the Old corps de logis by an 11° angle made up by a staircase inspired by the palace at Rastatt. By the time he was replaced with Nette, the main building's ground floor and walls had been completed and much of the southern garden was terraced.

In 1706 the young and talented court architect, Johann Friedrich Nette, had already created an elaborate design for a three-winged, U-shaped palace in the French Baroque style. In the following years a new wing, the future main building, began to be constructed to the north of the old corps de logis. Shortly thereafter, the main building was attached to the old hunting lodge with two narrow wings containing the hunting and play pavilions and their connecting galleries. One side wing has been attached orthogonally to the main building (The Ordensbau (German: Order's building) to the west and the Riesenbau (German: Giant building) to the east) via the arcades, so that a three winged complex emerged with an honor court that opened to the south. Nette traveled twice to Prague in 1708 and 1709 to recruit experienced artisans and workers when construction of the interior began. By the time Nette died in 1715, his eight years on the site saw the completion of the north garden and much of the residential palace.

Among the experienced craftsmen Nette hired in Prague was an Italian stuccoist named Donato Giuseppe Frisoni who arrived at Ludwigsburg in 1709. Already in 1709 had Duke Eberhard Louis entrusted the design of the city of Ludwigsburg to Frisoni, and when Johann Friedrich Nette died in 1715, he became the lead architect working on the palace of Ludwigsburg against the will of the building commission. His designs for the separation of the palace and the city as well as the equal prominence of the Protestant and Catholic churches in Ludwigsburg show progressive attitudes even as he continued the work Nette started before him at the palace. However, Frisoni made the addition of the two chapels on either side of the palace. On the orders of Duke Eberhard Louis, Frisoni put into motion his plans for the final wing of the palace, the corps de logis on the southern edge of the courtyard. This new wing, large enough for the duke's ceremonies, was constructed from 1724 to 1733. The two side wings that connected the two corps de logis were fully under construction from 1726 to 1733. The first mayor of Luwigsburg died 29 November 1935, following the arrest of Frisoni and his brother-in-law Paolo Retti for alleged embezzlement.

Surrounding the palace on nearly all sides is the massive, 32 hectares (0.32 km2) Blooming Baroque garden, or in German, "Blühendes Barock." Although the history of the garden is as long as the one of the palace it graces, the current incarnation of the garden was completed in 1954 for the palace's 250th birthday according to how it might have looked in 1800. This garden was only intended to last six months, but soon became a permanent fixture of the palace and is today looked after by the city of Ludwigsburg. In today's garden, open from March to November, visitors will find many different designs and arrangements from various styles and cultures. Notable examples of this ever-changing garden are the Japanese and Sardinian gardens, baroque Parterre, aviaries containing native as well as exotic birds in the northern garden, the "Valley of Birdsong," and the Emichsburg folly, where tourists with a knowledge of German can entice Rapunzel into lowering her hair. One entirely unique area of the gardens is the Fairy-Tale garden (German: Marchengarten), shown on the figure below, which contains some thirty depictions from several fairy tales. The park today brings more than 500,000 visitors annually.

When the first plans for a garden were laid, Duke Eberhard Louis favored creating a steep slope on the north side of the palace in the Italian style complete with terraces and water falls. However, when the castle began to expand, he turned his attention the south side of the palace and there laid out a symmetrical French baroque garden. Duke Charles Eugene modified the gardens beginning 1750 in the South garden by removing some retaining walls and replacing them with an orangerie and a bosquet. However, 20 years later, the Duke began renting parts of the garden as his interest had left the gardens. Then-Duke Frederick I ordered, in 1798, a redesign of the garden in a style more to his taste. The South garden was laid out simply, with a large canal with oval basin and four new compartments each with a vase by Antonio Isopi. In addition to the expansion of the gardens with the Eastern gardens, two private gardens were added specifically for the King and his wife, Queen Charlotte of England. The Emichsburg located in today's Fairy-tale garden was built in 1802 on a large rock in the area of an English garden located between Schloss Favorite and Monrepos and a park with carousels made for the amusement of guests to Ludwigsburg Palace. The garden again fell out of favor in the reign of Frederick's son and successor, William I, who moved completely out of the palace for Rosenstein Palace in Stuttgart. William I opened the garden to the public in 1828, planted an orchard on the southern parterre, filled in the basin and canal, and began breeding Kashmir and Angora goats in Frederick I's forest park. When the palace ceased to be a royal residence after the dissolution of the Kingdom, the gardens largely became an orchard and potatoes were planted in the South garden and the palatial gardens remained in this state of disrepair for years.

In 1947, Ludwigsburg's gardens were assigned to the care of Albert Schöchle, director of the State Agency of Plants and Gardens (German: Staatlichen Anlagen und Gärten). The disrepair of the gardens was such that in the South garden, no path was visible and many thickets had become totally impassible. While attending the Federal Garden Show of 1951 in Hanover, Schöchle became of the opinion that a superior garden show could be had at the large historical gardens of Ludwigsburg Palace. Schöchle, through planning and political savvy, was able to get his plans approved and funded by Minister of Finance Dr. Karl Frank and so began work 23 March 1953, 13 months before the opening of the garden. Enormous amounts of earth had to be moved for the arrangement of the garden and laying of paths to begin, but by the autumn of 1953, much of the gardens planed and hundreds of thousands of flowers had been planted. On 23 April 1954, the gardens finally opened to about 500,000 visitors by May of that year, among them Theodor Heuss, who toured the garden. When the show ended in autumn of 1954, not only was the show itself completely refunded by the proceeds, but the gardens could safely afford to become a permanent landmark of Ludwigsburg.

This lustschloss and hunting lodge was built from 1713 to 1728, on commission from Duke Eberhard Louis based on a garden in Vienna, to replace the hunting lodge Ludwigsburg originally was intended to replace and add more aesthetic value to the main palace grounds. Like its parent palace, Schloss Favorite combines three styles (Baroque, Rococo, and Neoclassical). Originally, the palace's architect, Donato Giuseppe Frisoni, intended the palace to be surrounded by four circular pavilions and six alleys that would divide the palace grounds into a six-pointed star. Though these plans never reached fruition, two of these avenues survive and they connect Schloss Favorite to Ludwigsburg Palace and Monrepos. One baroque embellishment that survives to this day are the four pillars at the front entrance of the palace that symbolize the elements of earth, fire, water, and air. Yet another interesting feature of Frisoni's palace is the flat roof terrace the Duke and honored guests could stand on and shoot at passing game from that offers a decent view of the gardens around it.

Schloss Favorite, designed by Donato Giuseppe Frisoni, was not intended for long stays, but it was perfectly outfitted for the more glamorous functions of court, especially balls. Schloss Favorite was used as the backdrop to a firework display for his wedding to Elisabeth Frederika Sophie in 1748. This would not be the first time Charles Eugene would alter the palace's function for the palace for his wife. For Fredericka's eighteenth birthday, the Duke had the palace transformed into an opera house for a showing of Carl Heinrich Graun's Artaserse – the premiere of which he had been a guest to in 1743 in Berlin.

The interiors of the palace were converted to the Neoclassical style in 1800 by court architect Nikolaus Friedrich von Thouret on the orders of then King Frederick because the baroque interiors of the palace were by then passé and not of his taste. Three years prior, in 1797, Frederick I had von Thouret redesign the main hall, called the Festaal, and neighboring rooms in the Neoclassical style. Today, only one room, in the western half of the building, retains its original baroque appearance. In the 20th century, the palace fell into disrepair but it was renovated in the 1980s. Since 1983, Schloss Favorite has been open to the public all days of the week except Monday. In 2017, the castle was closed all year for renovations.

Along one of the two surviving roads from Frisoni's designs for Schloss Favorite, Charles Eugene, Duke of Württemberg, decided to erect a new palace on the site of a pavilion Eberhard Louis had built in 1714. So it was that Duke Charles transformed the area around Schloss Favorite and started construction of Schloss Monrepos on the north shore of the Eglosheimer See so that he could climb into Venetian gondolas and enjoy the lake. It would last from 1764 to 1768, cost the Duchy of Württemberg a sum of at least 300,000 florins. Unfortunately for Duke Charles, the architect he charged with the construction of his new palace, Philippe de La Guêpière, could not overcome the dampening of his construction material. Once again, it was the interest of the first King of Württemberg, Frederick I, that would save the palace. In his reign, the simple solution of lowering the water level of the lake to make construction possible was discovered, allowing the palace could be completed.

From opening time at 10 AM to 5 PM CET, a 90 minute-long guided tour in German begins every half-hour. A tour in English is offered at 1:30 PM.

There are various museums inside the Palace, each primarily an extension of a larger museum organization. First is the Barockgalerie, or "Baroque Gallery" in the Old Main building, a branch of the Stuttgart State Gallery that houses various historical works of Baroque art by numerous artists. Occupying a space of about 2,000 square metres (22,000 sq ft) in the New Main building is the large collection of some 4500 individual exhibits of porcelains and ceramics in the Keramikmuseum, Ceramic museum, and the Modemuseum, or "Fashion museum," which displays about 700 pieces of clothing from the years 1750 to 1970. Both are under the umbrella of the Württemberg State Museum Stuttgart.

For children aged four and beyond, there is an interactive museum called Kinderreich, or "Children's empire." The aim of the museum is to teach children about life in the court of the Duke of Württemberg via hands-on methods that include the wearing of period dress.

Some scenes of Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon were filmed in the palace.

There are depictions of the palace within the "Olga Album" at the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart.