II. - Schloss Schwetzingen

the residence to be situated on major roads or
rivers. 6
The Summer Residence of Schwetzingen
The aforementioned criteria all apply to the
summer residence of Schwetzingen. During
the reign of Elector Carl Theodor the road to
Mannheim was improved, and a relay station
for the changing of horses was established
where the road touched what today is the
Mannheim suburb of Rheinau. It was extended
well into the palace grounds, where
it took the shape of the circular parterre’s
transverse axis. The road to Heidelberg, built
in the 17th century by Elector Carl Ludwig (r.
1649–1680), was improved as well and lined
with mulberry trees in the 18th century, a
measure intended to support the silk industry.
This axis connecting Heidelberg’s Königsstuhl
hill with the summit of Kalmit in the Pfälzer
Wald hills was used by the court astronomer,
Johann Christian Mayer, as the baseline for
his survey of the Palatinate. It received due
consideration in the two maps he made and
that are among the most precise of the 18th
century. Sections of the axis are still visible
in the course of today’s streets, Carl-Theodor-
Straße and Kurfürstenstraße, as well as those
of the former Heidelberg-Schwetzingen
railway, a footpath, and the runway of an
American air base.
The rulers of the Palatinate only decided on
their permanent residence when Elector Carl
Theodor returned from a lengthy visit to his
domains on the Lower Rhine, Jülich and Berg
with the capital of Düsseldorf. On the court’s
return in September 1747, Carl Theodor chose
Mannheim to be his future residence. The
immediate consequences were the enlargement
of the residential palace at Mannheim
and alterations made to the palace gardens of
Schwetzingen – as well as the publication of a
Palatine court calendar. 7
6 Egon Johannes Greipl, Macht und Pracht. Die Geschichte der
Residenzen in Franken, Schwaben und Altbayern, Regensburg
1991, p. 9.
7 Stefan Mörz, Haupt- und Residenzstadt. Carl Theodor, sein
Hof und Mannheim, Mannheim 1998, pp. 44 ff.
II. Schwetzingen – A Prince Elector’s Eighteenth-Century Summer Residence
Restructuring the Town
The village of Schwetzingen too was methodically
converted into a summer seat worthy
of the Palatinate. With Oberbaudirektor
(director-in-chief of building) Galli da Bibiena
in charge, a manifesto was passed on 16th
July 1748 proclaiming that the Elector had
commissioned “the aforementioned Bibiena”
to draw up a plan for the settlement’s further
development. Anybody wishful to build a
house on the stretch of land specifi ed would
have the site allotted to him by Bibiena,
and would have to conform to certain rules
regarding the style and appearance of the
building. 8 By the building of two-storey stone
houses the village of Schwetzingen was to be
converted into a Baroque residence. Bibiena
derived the dimensions of the new palace
square from those of the court of honor: the
palace square is precisely as wide, and twice
as deep, as the court of honor. Its west side
opens towards the palace; the east side has
a closed front of buildings interrupted by
one gap the width of the former mulberry
avenue. The visitor arriving from the direction
of Heidelberg emerges from this (narrow)
avenue (today’s Carl-Theodor-Straße) into the
wide open square terminated in the distance
by the palace. The latter serves as a “point de
vue” and also provides access to the grounds
behind. In contrast to residences like Versailles
or even the not-too-distant Karlsruhe,
both structured by streets that originate from
the palace, thereby emphasizing its dominant
position, the palace of Schwetzingen serves
as the termination of the road leading up to it
from Heidelberg. 9
The fi rst buildings to go up were the two Lshaped
houses marking the eastern end of the
square (today the offi ces of the local newspaper,
Schwetzinger Zeitung, and an inn, the
“Grüner Baum”). The plots were assigned to
their new owners by Carl Theodor at no cost,
as a recompensation for the loss of their land
8 Badisches Generallandesarchiv Karlsruhe 221/47 ’ 17th July
1748.
9 Wiltrud Heber/Anneliese Seeliger-Zeiss, Der Schwetzinger
Schlossplatz und seine Bauten, Veröffentlichungen zur
Heidelberger Altstadt, Heidelberg 1974, p. 2.
II.
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