II. - Schloss Schwetzingen

intended by the Baroque building plan. The
Baroque structures 50 have been added to, and
occasionally replaced, in the course of the
19th and 20th centuries. Traces of the earlier
rural buildings survive in some of the side
streets.
As in earlier times, the Leimbach, serving as
an open moat, separates the town centre from
the palace area. The shape and layout of the
palace itself 51 and the garden adjoining it to
the west, still convey the appearance of the
18th-century summer palace. The original
intention of extending the main axes beyond
the confi nes of the park is still apparent: north
towards the circus, this is achieved by the
houses on the tree-lined Lindenstraße avenue,
west up to the motorway crossing by the trees
lining the street, where the original lane used
to be cut into the woodland. Southwest of
the gardens where the hunting park used to
be the eight-lane “Jagdstern” survives in the
shape of a crossing of eight paths.
Large sections of the main west-east axis,
the avenue of mulberry trees created at the
beginning of the 18th century to connect
Schwetzingen and Heidelberg, survive in the
form of paths and of sections of the former
railway route to Heidelberg, still directing the
50 Cp. parts of the 1760s stables and the buildings to the south of
the square.
51 Cp. Martin, pp. 76, 190 ff. Besides the palace itself the 1760s
waterworks and the guardhouses from the late 18th century
survive.
III. Schwetzingen – Historical Context
view towards Königstuhl. Likewise, the older
Schwetzingen-Heidelberg connection further
north still recalls the 17th-century road, the
“Neuer Weg”.
Up to the present day, the early 21st century,
the historic cultural landscape of Schwetzingen
is characterized largely by the heritage
of its Palatine past. Supplementing this are
the remains of the earlier rural settlements,
and the heritage of the industrial age.
(Svenja Schrickel)
III.
Fig. 9: Section of a topographic
map of the Archduchy of Baden,
1838. In the course of the 19th
century, much woodland in the
vicinity of Schwetzingen was
developed for farming.
97