On 3 July 1474 the wedding of Count Eberhard and Princess Barbara Gonzaga von Mantua took place in Urach. The celebration lasted several days and was attended by 13,000 guests. The food consumed by these guests included 165,000 loaves of bread and around 40,000 gallons (150,000 liters) of wine. This banquet consisted of 22 courses: 1. Chicken in white broth, 2. Green cabbage with fried sausages, 3. Roast suckling pig, 4. Hot boiled trout, 5. Baked white ox meat......22. Crabs.
Preisend mit viel schönen Reden
Ihrer Länder Wert und Zahl,
Saßen viele deutsche Fürsten
Einst zu Worms im Kaisersaal.
"Herrlich", sprach der Fürst von Sachsen,
»ist mein Land und seine Macht,
Silber hegen seine Berge Wohl
in manchem tiefen Schacht."
"Seht mein Land in üpp'ger Fülle", Sprach der Kurfürst von dem Rhein,
»Goldne Saaten in den Tälern,
Auf den Bergen edlen Wein!"
"Große Städte, reiche Klöster!"
Ludwig, Herr zu Bayern, sprach,
"Schaffen, dass mein Land dem euren
Wohl nicht steht an Schätzen nach."
Eberhard, der mit dem Barte,
Württembergs geliebter Herr,
Sprach:"Mein Land hat kleine Städte,
Trägt nicht Berge silberschwer;
Doch ein Kleinod hält's verborgen:
Dass in Wäldern, noch so groß,
Ich mein Haupt kann kühnlich legen
Jedem Untertan in Schoß."
Und es rief der Herr von Sachsen,
Der von Bayern, der vom Rhein:
"Graf im Bart! Ihr seid der reichste,
Euer Land trägt Edelstein!"
Justinus Kerner
The marble tabletop of the "Schragentisch" (table with crossed legs) that stands in the "Goldener Saal" (Golden Hall) has been cracked since the Thirty Years' War. According to legend it was damaged in 1635 by a cannonball fired from Hohenurach that struck the table of the imperial officers who had already occupied Urach.
The wooden image of a legendary wild sow killed by Duke Ulrich von Württemberg in 1507 near Urach is still kept at Urach Palace today. It was once covered with the fur of the huge animal. Martin Crusius wrote the following in his chronicle of 1596:
In Aurach a wild pig was made of wood with art, which represented a natural and true wild pig killed by Duke Ulrich, and was prepared in such a way that it ran toward the one standing by it when a small piece of wood was pushed down with the foot.
Saw It Eduard Mörike came to Urach on 27 November 1818 at the age of fourteen as one of the first seminarians of the newly founded Protestant theological seminary. Not only the countryside around Urach left its traces in Mörike's poetry. The "Rittersaal" (Hall of Knights) in Mörike's only novel, the "Maler Nolten" (Nolten the Painter) is reminiscent of the Goldener Saal of the Urach residential palace:
"(...) a small paneled Hall of Knights with an oriel, which offered the prettiest view in the entire palace. Then he described the antique charm of the multiply adorned oaken walls, a row of life-sized counts and dukes with their coats of arms and maxims carve in wood (...) and Nolten had to admit, he felt truly relieved and elevated by such a cheerful and impressive environment. Window upon window were lighted up along the long wall and the former splendor even extended to the small round panes, the lead of which still showed traces of good gilding everywhere. The hall is said to have been called "the golden lantern" long ago due to its sumptuousness and extraordinary brightness. (...)
The poet and storyteller, and later Minister of Culture of the German Democratic Republic, Johannes R. Becher (1891-1958), stayed in the city as a permanent guest of the "Uracher Kreis" (Urach Circle) between 1923 and 1930. Becher found a home in Urach. From 1943 to 1944 he wrote cycles of poems in remembrance of his time in Urach, including "Urach oder der Wanderer aus Schwaben" (Urach or the Wanderer from Swabia).
"Die Rauhe Alb. Von Höhen wie umfangen und zu den Höhen wie im Traumverlangen Aufblickend: Urach. Apfelbäume blühn, Und tief verneigen sich die Blütenzweige. Ein Holzfuhrwerk zieht hoch die Ulmer Steige. Die Burgruine: Fels im Hügelgrün. (...)
Johannes R. Becher