Like the Taj Mahal in India, the burial chapel in Stuttgart is a monument to a great love. When King Wilhelm I of Württemberg married his cousin Katharina Pavlovna in 1816, no one could have guessed that their marriage would last only three years. Katharina died unexpectedly in January 1819, and the queen lived to be only 30 years old.
The bond of love was so strong, however, that King William I set up a monument to her. He had the old ancestral castle of the Württemberger on the Rotenberg in the east of Stuttgart demolished and a romantic mausoleum for Katharina built there by court architect Giovanni Salucci. Above the main entrance hangs the devotional inscription: "Love never ceases".
The funeral chapel has been open to the public since 1907. Currently, it is open for tours from the beginning of April to the end of November. In addition to the romantic building, visitors are also impressed by the location in the middle of the vineyards and the view over the Neckar valley.
