Burial Tomb of Queen Katharina of Württemberg
N 48° 46.925 E 009° 16.129
32U E 519747 N 5403266
The site of the ancestral castle of the Württemberg royal family, it is now the site of the tomb and memorial to Queen Katharina.
Waymark Code: WMAVY
Location: Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Date Posted: 04/19/2006
Views: 142
The hill on which this memorial chapel stands lends it name to the German state of Baden-Württemberg and the royal family who governed this region up until the birth of the German republic. It is located just on the outskirts of the state capital, Stuttgart.
Conrad I of Württemberg was the first ruler of the castle of Wirtemberg 1083-1110, and is first mentioned in 1081. He is considered to be founder of the Württemberg dynasty.
About 1083 Conrad built a castle on the Wirtemberg close to today's Stuttgart. He made this place his domicile and named himself after it.
Swabia became a duchy under the Frankish Empire in 496, following the Battle of Tolbiac.
The Hohenstaufen family controlled the duchy of Swabia until the death of Conradin in 1268, when a considerable part of its lands fell to the count of Württemberg.
The earliest historical details on a Count of Württemberg relate to one Konrad II of Württemberg, who ruled from 1241 to 1265. He served as marshal of Swabia and advocate of the town of Ulm, and had large possessions in the valleys of the Neckar and the Rems. Under his sons, Ulrich II and Eberhard I, and their successors, the power of the family grew steadily. Eberhard I (died 1325) opposed, and not always unsuccessfully, three German kings; he doubled the area of his county and transferred his residence from Württemberg Castle to today's city center of Stuttgart. His successors seem not perhaps equally important, but all added something to the area of Württemberg. The family shared out their lands amongst collateral branches several times, but in 1482 the Treaty of Münsingen reunited the territory and declared it indivisible and united it under Count Eberhard V, called im Bart. This arrangement received the sanction of the German king, Maximilian I, and of the imperial diet, in 1495.
According to the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss, which reorganized the Empire as a result of the French annexation of the Left Bank of the Rhine, the Duke of Württemberg was raised to the dignity of Imperial Elector. Friedrich assumed the title Prince-Elector (Kurfürst) 25 February 1803, and was thereafter known as the Elector of Württemberg. The reorganization of the Empire also secured the new Elector control of various ecclesiastical territories and former free cities, thus greatly increasing the size of his domains.
In exchange for providing France with a large auxiliary force, Napoleon recognized the Elector as King of Württemberg on 26 December 1805. Friedrich became King Friedrich I when he formally ascended the throne on 1 January 1806 and was crowned as such on the same day at Stuttgart. Soon after, Württemberg seceded from the Holy Roman Empire and joined Napleon's Confederation of the Rhine.
Description:
Queen Katharina was the sister of Czar Alexander and was married to crown prince Wilhelm von Württemberg in 1816. She was well loved by her subjects and known for having founded the Württemberg savings bank, a church, and a hospital in Stuttgart. She died suddenly at the age of 30 in 1819. King Wilhelm built her memorial and final resting place.
Date of birth: 01/01/1789
Date of death: 01/09/1819
Area of notoriety: Historical Figure
Marker Type: Monument
Setting: Indoor
Visiting Hours/Restrictions: Closed in Winter, otherwise open weekends & holidays 10-12 a.m. & 1-5 p.m.
Fee required?: Yes
Web site: [Web Link]
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