Schloss Favorite

Rastatt, Germany, Germany

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Schloss Favorite is a nearly intact baroque pleasure palace and hunting lodge located in Rastatt-Förch on the outskirts of Rastatt in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, built between 1710 and 1730 by architect Johann Michael Ludwig Rohrer for Margravine Sibylla Augusta, the widow of Louis William, Margrave of Baden-Baden (known as "Türkenlouis").

The three-story palace with Italian-inspired architecture and a flat roof terrace offering views across the extensive parkland served as a summer residence used only several weeks per year for princely pleasures, hunting, and social gatherings, and it is the oldest German "porcelain palace" and the only one to survive almost completely unchanged to this day.

The palace houses spectacular collections including Chinese porcelain, black lacquerwork, Schwarz porcelain, and Fayences from around the world, with the completely preserved "Florentiner Kabinett" being unique in Europe. The facade features pebble plaster (Kieselsteinputz), which was fashionable at the time, and the richly decorated interiors combining late baroque room decoration with Empire-style furniture can only be visited on guided tours that run hourly from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm.

The surrounding late baroque garden includes an English landscape section with the Eremitage and the simple Magdalenenkapelle (Mary Magdalene Chapel), where the Margravine would retreat, surrounded by wax figures of the Holy Family.