Together with Favorite Palace, the Rastatt Palace Church is the most important architectural testimony to Margravine Sibylla Augusta (1675-1733). Between 1719 and 1723, the Bohemian court architect Johann Michael Ludwig Rohrer built the palace church as the court church "Zum Heiligen Kreuz".
As a unity of building, originally preserved furnishings and church treasures, the palace church is an important testimony to Baroque piety. It is one of a cycle of "holy places" that the margravine had built in Rastatt and Förch between 1717 and 1723. The margravine's tomb is also located in the palace church. Sibylla Augusta's gravestone bears the inscription she chose herself: "BETTET / FÜR / DIE / GROSE / SÜNDERIN / AUGUSTA / MDCCXXXIII".
Since the extinction of the House of Baden-Baden in 1771, the church has served as a "grammar school church" for the Piarist School, which later became the Lyceum. Following extensive renovation and restoration work, the castle church can now be visited again as part of a guided tour. Those interested can also view the castle church digitally.
Children discover Rastatt:
the margravine's palace church was to look "extra beautiful and in no way inferior to the palace rooms". That was her wish before construction began in February 1720.
On this day, the remains of particularly religiously revered deceased people were brought to the castle chapel in a procession of relics. The people taking part in the procession had to line up in such a way that they formed the shape of a cross when viewed from the castle balcony. Many thousands of believers watched.
Ludwig, the town mouse, Siri, the castle mouse, and Matteo, the kestrel, were able to save the court sexton from a bad situation. The margrave had promised his citizens a church. However, the margravine fulfilled her late husband's wish somewhat differently. The church in the town became a church in the palace.