Urach Palace was built beginning in 1443 as a residential palace next to the small water-surrounded castle on the banks of the Erms river. The establishment of a residential palace had become necessary in 1442 following the division of the country in the "Nürtinger Vertrag" (Pact of Nürtingen). The two brothers Count Ulrich V ("der Vielgeliebte" - "the Much-Loved") and Count Ludwig I divided what was at that time the largest closed dominion in the German Southwest between themselves. Ludwig was given the Urach section of the possessions and had a half-timber building erected on a high stone floor based on the example of the residential palace in Stuttgart (Altes Schloss - Old Palace).
The ground floor consists of a four-naved Gothic vaulted Dürnitz (Main Hall). It originally had a flat roof and served as a main and dining hall. Stone benches, before which wooden tables once stood, can still be found in the window embrasures today. The rooms used for festivities and the residential rooms of the count and countess were located on the first and second floor. The entire building was covered with a hipped roof.
Following the early death of Ludwig II in 1457, who had succeeded his father after his death in 1450, Ludwig's brother Eberhard V, who was born in 1445 in Urach Palace, came to power. On the occasion of his marriage to the daughter of a duke, Barbara Gonzaga from Mantua, Eberhard V had the Dürnitz expanded to a hall with ribbed vaulting. In the large reception hall above it, floor-to-ceiling palm trees were painted on the walls following Eberhard's pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Their trunks were flanked by Eberhard's motto "Attempto" (I'll try it).
In the 15th century this "Palmensaal" (Hall of Palms) covered the entire upper floor. It was even possible for riders coming from the palace courtyard to enter this central hall of the palace via a wooden staircase. Eberhard V also had the proof of his heritage demonstrated here. The large painted shields, which hung as coats of arms on the palm trees, refer to Eberhard's high-ranking lineage. Around 1550 the hall was converted to the "Jagdsaal" (Hunting Hall). In the course of the renovation work conducted in the 1960's, the by then completely remodeled room was partially restored.
The most beautiful room of the palace, the "Goldener Saal" (Golden Hall), was furnished on the occasion of the magnificent wedding of Eberhard and Barbara Gonzaga in 1474. Duke Johann Friedrich had the hall remodeled in the opulent style of the late Renaissance on the occasion of his marriage in 1609. The Renaissance Hall is one of the most beautiful Renaissance rooms in the German Southwest.
The treasures of the appointments include broad, luxuriously glazed bands of windows, gilded wall and ceiling decorations, a magnificent oven with rich three-dimensional ornamentation and, last but not least, the two elaborately adorned portals. In addition, a marble table from the middle of the 16th century can still be found in the center of the room today. Four splendid columns support the room's adorned beamed ceiling.