Karlsruhe was the capital of the Margraviate of Baden-Durlach Durlach : โ; Karlsruhe: โ , the Margraviate of Baden โ , the Electorate of Baden โ , the Grand Duchy of Baden โ , and the Republic of Baden โ Its most remarkable building is Karlsruhe Palace , which was built in There are nine institutions of higher education in the city, most notably the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Karlsruhe lies completely to the east of the Rhine , and almost completely on the Upper Rhine Plain.
It contains the Turmberg in the east, and also lies on the borders of the Kraichgau leading to the Northern Black Forest. The city centre is about 7. Two tributaries of the Rhine, the Alb and the Pfinz , flow through the city from the Kraichgau to eventually join the Rhine. Its course is marked by a stone and painted line in the Stadtgarten municipal park. The total area of the city is The longest northโsouth distance is Almost all of these streets survive to this day.
Because of this city layout, in metric geometry , Karlsruhe metric refers to a measure of distance that assumes travel is only possible along radial streets and along circular avenues around the centre. The city centre is the oldest part of town and lies south of the palace in the quadrant defined by nine of the radial streets. The market square lies on the street running south from the palace to Ettlingen. The market square has the town hall Rathaus to the west, the main Lutheran church Evangelische Stadtkirche to the east, and the tomb of Margrave Charles III William in a pyramid in the buildings, resulting in Karlsruhe being one of only three large cities in Germany where buildings are laid out in the neoclassical style.
The area north of the palace is a park and forest. Originally the area to the east of the palace consisted of gardens and forests, some of which remain, but the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology founded in , Wildparkstadion football stadium, and residential areas have been built there.
The area west of the palace is now mostly residential. With an average of more than 2, sunshine hours a year, it is also one of the sunniest cities in Germany, like the Rhine-Palatinate area. Precipitation occurs mainly during the winter, while in summer it is concentrated on single evening thunderstorms. In , the weather station in Karlsruhe, which had been in operation since , was closed; it was replaced by a weather station in Rheinstetten , south of Karlsruhe.
