II. - Schloss Schwetzingen
II. - Schloss Schwetzingen
II. - Schloss Schwetzingen
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<strong>II</strong>I.<br />
Fig. 1: Plan showing expropriations<br />
between 1748 and 1760<br />
(section); the new quarter-circle<br />
orangeries are superimposed on<br />
the old pleasure garden (Generallandesarchiv<br />
Karlsruhe).<br />
130<br />
<strong>II</strong>I. <strong>Schwetzingen</strong> – Historical Context<br />
d)<br />
History of the Palace Garden<br />
1. The Origins of the Palace Garden<br />
Architectural conditions and older gardens<br />
on the site of <strong>Schwetzingen</strong> Palace<br />
There is no documentation pointing to any<br />
gardens at <strong>Schwetzingen</strong> Palace during the<br />
14th and 15th centuries. The fi rst garden<br />
mentionend appears in 17th-century documents,<br />
and in the letters of Elisabeth Charlotte<br />
von der Pfalz (“Liselotte von der Pfalz”) 1 . 2 It<br />
was her father, Elector Carl Ludwig 3 , who had<br />
rebuilt the palace after the devastations of the<br />
Thirty Years’ War and made it into a residence<br />
for his second wife, Luise von Degenfeld. The<br />
garden created along with it, featured hedges,<br />
paths, trees, vegetables, herbs, fl owers and<br />
1 Elisabeth Charlotte von der Pfalz, 1652-1722, married to the<br />
brother of Louis XIV of France.<br />
2 Cp. Martin 1933, pp. 18, 22.<br />
3 Elector Palatine Carl Ludwig, 1617-1680; r. 1649-1680<br />
walks overgrown with vines. 4 Access from the<br />
palace to the garden was via a bridge, because<br />
the water-fi lled moats surrounding the<br />
original fortifi ed manor were still in place. In<br />
1682, half of the orange and lemon trees from<br />
the garden of the Friedrichsburg at Mannheim<br />
were brought to <strong>Schwetzingen</strong>. 5 No information<br />
survives concerning the housing of the<br />
citrus trees in winter.<br />
During the Palatine War of Succession<br />
(1688–1697) parts of the palace were destroyed<br />
again. Elector Johann Wilhelm 6 had it<br />
rebuilt and enlarged; the moats were fi lled<br />
in, the wings enclosing the court of honour<br />
were added, and the gatehouses were built<br />
(1710/11). An extension was added to the west<br />
of the corps de logis (1715-17), which today<br />
forms the palace’s garden front.<br />
In 1720, Elector Carl Philipp 7 moved his<br />
court from Heidelberg to <strong>Schwetzingen</strong>, and<br />
in 1731, on to Mannheim. <strong>Schwetzingen</strong>,<br />
however, remained the summer palace.<br />
The palace garden, created by the Elector is<br />
the fi rst of which depictions to survive. It<br />
appears in a plan documenting expropriations<br />
between 1748 and 1760 (see Fig. 1), and there<br />
is also an undated view of the palace, that<br />
shows the garden as well. This extended west<br />
from the palace, and between 1718 and 1728<br />
an orangery was built at its western end 8 by<br />
the architect Alessandro Galli da Bibiena 9 .<br />
The garden was bordered by a long one-storey<br />
building in the south and a wall in the north.<br />
A wide central path leading from the palace<br />
to the orangery divided the space. Smaller<br />
paths crossing diagonally and at right angles,<br />
subdivided both halves. The centre featured<br />
a fountain in a circular basin; in 1725, the<br />
fi rst water wheel on the site of today’s Upper<br />
Waterworks was constructed to supply it. 10<br />
In 1731, Johann Friedrich Armand von<br />
4 Generallandesarchiv Karlsruhe (GLA) Kopialbuch 942<br />
Heidelberg Urkunden-Abschrift Nro.363 (original dated 22nd<br />
May 1669).<br />
5 Thomas Alfried Leger, Führer durch den Schwetzinger Garten,<br />
Mannheim 1829, p. 7.<br />
6 Elector Palatine Johann Wilhelm, 1658-1716, r. 1690-1716.<br />
7 Elector Palatine Carl Philipp, 1661-1742, r. 1716-1742.<br />
8 Hubert Wolfgang Wertz, “Die Schwetzinger Orangerien”, in:<br />
Der Süden im Norden, Regensburg 1999, pp. 59 f.<br />
9 Alessandro Galli da Bibiena, d. 1748, architect.<br />
10 Martin 1933, p. 190.