The trio made up of the duke's lodge, the Neues Lusthaus pleasure palace in Stuttgart and the Collegium Illustre school in Tübingen are considered a Renaissance showpiece. All three building were designed by court architect Georg Beer (1527–1600).
The lodge represents a ruler's claim.
After the Reformation of 1534, Württemberg's ruler, Duke Ulrich, took ownership of Hirsau Monastery and the monks had to leave. In 1556, his son Duke Christoph established a Protestant monastery school. The construction of a hunting lodge was a particularly obvious demonstration of this new ownership. Duke Ludwig von Württemberg had it built south of the conclave by his court architect, Georg Beer, between 1589 and 1593.
Built and furnished to the highest standards.
The three-aisled Renaissance structure taking the place of the medieval abbots house was one of the duke's many construction projects striving for courtly representation and dynastic showmanship. Georg Beer designed a building of the highest quality; his student and successor, Heinrich Schickhardt (1558–1635), supported the project. The employment of several craftsmen from the residential palace in Stuttgart further guaranteed the quality.
The hunting lodge was located immediately next to the former conclave.
The hunting lodge bordered the conclave to the south and was connected to it via a four-story gate tower. It stretches approximately 37 meters north-south and at least 76 meters east-west. The nearly square east wing with its four tail gables housed a cellar and a large hall with a fireplace where the reception rooms were likely located. The elongated south wing and stair tower, of which only the ground level wall remains, served as a connecting structure.
The lodge after the fire.
The duke used his lodge as a dwelling befitting his rank during hunts, and as a base for his spa trips to Liebenzell. More than 100 years after its construction, it, like the neighboring monastery, was burned to the ground by French troops during the Nine Years' War. Only a few pieces remain of the once opulent structure, including architectural fragments and part of a large fireplace. The west wing of the lodge was not entirely destroyed and was repurposed for grain storage in 1740.
Only the exterior walls remain of the representative hunting lodge, a symbol of the ducal claim to power.
