Ancient artefacts and royal treasures in the Old Castle
The Württemberg State Museum in Stuttgart’s Altes Schloss (Old Castle) emerged from the 16th-century Kunstkammer (art chamber) of the dukes-turned-kings of Württemberg who resided in the city, and the Royal State Collection of National Art and Antiquities, the predecessor institution of the museum founded in 1862. The museum’s collections of more than 1 million objects covers art history, archaeology and cultural history, taking visitors on a tour of Württemberg’s past. The highlights include some of humankind’s oldest art objects, including a delicate 35,000-year-old lion’s head carved out of mammoth ivory, sensational grave furnishings of Celtic princes and symbols of the Kingdom of Württemberg: a crown, scepter and the Württemberg queens’ diamonds. Beginning in 2012, new permanent exhibitions of its collection have reorganized its display, including “Legendary Masterpieces,” which tours the history of Württemberg from the Ice Age to present day, and “Real Treasures,” focusing on wider classical antiquity, early Celtic society and curiosities from the Stuttgart Kunstkammer. A children’s museum was opened in the Old Castle in 2010, and the Württemberg State Museum also maintains branch museums at other locations across the state.
