The town of Rastatt
The Margrave's architect, Domenico Egidio Rossi, drafted a three-part overall complex with symmetrical axes. It consisted of the expansive palace area, the garden adjoining to the east and the town expanded according to plan in the west. This basic concept from the Baroque age has been largely preserved until today.
The town and palace area are located on a flat plane, however they are separated from each other by a difference in height in the terrain. The intentional distance - the town lies only a few meters lower - is also emphasized by the terrace-shaped slope wall.
Like Versailles, the town is built on a three-ray ground plan ("patte d´oie" = goose foot). The main axis of the baroque complex leads through the palace and the palace garden and then continues to run in the direction of the Margrave's palace in Ettlingen. In the opposite direction it divides the town as the main road and points toward Fort Louis, which was erected on the other side of the Rhine by King Louis XIV in 1686. This main axis, the "Schlossstraße" (Palace Road), is accompanied by two secondary axes which run out radially from it. At some distance from the palace the Schlossstraße meets the perpendicular axis, the former Marktstraße and today the Kaiserstraße, at right angles. The center of town with the "Pfarrkirche" (Parish Church) and "Rathaus" (Town Hall) are located here. As a result, the entire plan defined an immediate concentration on the palace.