Its streets extending in the shape of a fan across the Rhine lowlands at the northern edge of the Black Forest, Karlsruhe is an early 18th-century new town, laid out by Margrave Karl Wilhelm in place of his medieval castle at nearby Durlach. His immaculate baroque palace is now the Baden Regional Museum, with an exceptionally varied collection, including a fine selection of Egyptian antiquities. Nearby is the excellent Museum of Fine Arts. At one end of the market square is the city's symbol, the Pyramid, where the margrave is buried. One of Karlsruhe's tramlines leads to the Black Forest resort of Herrenalb.
The Baden Regional Museum (Badisches Landesmuseum, Karlsruhe) occupies the baroque Schloß, whose interior was burnt out in World War II. It contains collections of sculpture and decorative arts from classical civilizations to the 20th century. The highlight is the Türkenbeute, a dazzling array of weapons, saddles, cutlery, jewellery, leatherwork, woodwork, books, and embroideries captured by Margrave Ludwig of Baden in the 17th-century wars against the Turks.
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