Karlsruhe Palace was erected in 1715 by Margrave Charles III William of Baden-Durlach, after a dispute with the citizens of his previous capital, Durlach. The city of Karlsruhe has since grown around it. The first building was constructed by Jakob Friedrich von Batzendorf. The city was planned with the tower of the palace at the centre and 32 streets radiating out from it like spokes on a wheel, or ribs on a folding fan.
Originally partially made of wood, the palace had to be rebuilt in 1746, using stone. Charles Frederick, Margrave of Baden-Durlach at the time, and who eventually became Charles Frederick, Grand Duke of Baden then had the palace altered by Balthasar Neumann and Friedrich von Kesslau until 1770, adding larger windows and doors, pavilions and wings. In 1785, Wilhelm Jeremias Müller shortened the tower, adding a cupola.
During the Revolutions of 1848, Leopold, Grand Duke of Baden was expelled in 1849 for some time. In 1918, the last monarch Frederick II, Grand Duke of Baden had to move out. The former residence of the Rulers of Baden is since used as Badisches Landesmuseum.
Much of the city centre, including the palace, was reduced to rubble by Allied bombing during World War II but was quickly rebuilt after the war.
References:The Pilgrimage Church of Wies (Wieskirche) is an oval rococo church, designed in the late 1740s by Dominikus Zimmermann. It is located in the foothills of the Alps in the municipality of Steingaden.
The sanctuary of Wies is a pilgrimage church extraordinarily well-preserved in the beautiful setting of an Alpine valley, and is a perfect masterpiece of Rococo art and creative genius, as well as an exceptional testimony to a civilization that has disappeared.
The hamlet of Wies, in 1738, is said to have been the setting of a miracle in which tears were seen on a simple wooden figure of Christ mounted on a column that was no longer venerated by the Premonstratensian monks of the Abbey. A wooden chapel constructed in the fields housed the miraculous statue for some time. However, pilgrims from Germany, Austria, Bohemia, and even Italy became so numerous that the Abbot of the Premonstratensians of Steingaden decided to construct a splendid sanctuary.