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In 1889, Grand Duke Friedrich I of Baden and his wife Luise of Prussia had this romantic mausoleum built, hidden away in the larch avenue of the Hardtwald forest, on the edge of the Fasanengarten.
Grand Duke Friedrich I of Baden and his wife Luise of Prussia had this romantic mausoleum built in 1889, hidden away in the larch avenue of the Hardtwald forest, on the edge of the Fasanengarten. The occasion was the early death of their youngest son. The parents wanted to be able to commemorate him far away from the noise of the city, "in the seclusion of the deep forest peace." Until then, the rulers of Baden had been buried in the castle church in Pforzheim or in the crypt of the city church in Karlsruhe – places that the grand duke and his wife could not visit without causing a public stir.
The desire for a separate family burial place away from the traditional burial sites was not an isolated wish of the rulers of Baden, but rather manifested a general trend at that time toward the separation of the public and private spheres and the desire for family seclusion. For example, a mausoleum was built in 1810 in the park of Charlottenburg Palace for the grandmother of the Grand Duchess of Baden, Queen Luise of Prussia. In 1820, King Wilhelm I of Württemberg also created a burial chapel on the Württemberg as a memorial to his late wife Katharina. The burial place as a symbol of dynastic continuity thus increasingly lost its significance. When the contract for the construction of the Karlsruhe burial chapel was put out to tender, the archbishop's building inspector Franz Baer from Freiburg was initially awarded the contract. However, due to illness, he had to be replaced shortly afterwards by the court architect Friedrich Hemberger. From the outset, Hemberger was assisted by his son Hermann, who was reputed to be particularly familiar with medieval styles. Hermann Hemberger gradually took over the construction planning and execution, so that the burial chapel is now regarded as his first work.
The **Grand Ducal Burial Chapel** is one of the state's monuments and is maintained by the State Palaces and Gardens of Baden-Württemberg. The **Grand Ducal Burial Chapel in Karlsruhe** can be visited as part of special tours.
Source: DZT Knowledge Graph
