3. - Schlösser-Magazin

3.
Bathroom in the Badenburg in
Nymphenburg palace gardens.
Preliminary design for the
Badenburg in Nymphenburg
palace gardens, Mathias Diesel,
c.1720.
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3. Justification for Inscription
All of this suggests a therapeutic use of the
baths that is very reminiscent of the thermae
of Classical Antiquity, but Turkish inspirations
are equally evident.
The Karlsaue “marble baths” in Kassel is a
little later – it was built between 1722 and
1730 by Marcus Schlichting for Landgrave
Carl of Hessen-Kassel. The Marmorbad is
located in one of the corner pavilions of the
orangery, and constitutes a counterpart to the
kitchen pavilion added later. The building’s
interior decoration suggests that it was
inspired by park architecture. The structure
appears to have been used as a showroom for
the work of the sculptor Monnot. In type the
Marmorbad at Kassel is quite similar to the
Munich Badenburg – the Marmorbad, too,
has a gallery running all around the room and
allowing a view of the basin, even though the
bath itself could not be used as such. Thus
both “bathing pavilions” differ significantly
from Schwetzingen in size, intended use
and even the time of their construction, both
having been built earlier in the 18th-century.
Moreover the original incorporation of the
Schwetzingen bathhouse into its surroundings
is still visible today, a sophisticated, carefully
orchestrated microcosm, whereas both the
Badenburg and the Marmorbad have lost their
original Baroque surroundings to landscaped
redesigns. The building at Schwetzingen
was conceived as part of a carefully arranged
sequence of images leading from the Apollo
temple through the arbour of the „”waterspouting
birds“ and on to the so-called
“World’s End”, a diorama reached by way of a
dark passage.
Two small rooms designated as bathrooms
in Benrath Palace near Düsseldorf (built by
Nicolas de Pigage, 1756-c.1763) were probably
never fully furnished.
The Schwetzingen bathhouse with its largely
preserved original furnishing is thus both one
of the last remaining examples of Baroque
bathing culture, and the focal point of a subtle
and sophisticated garden microcosm.
Still surrounded by its original Baroque
“garden within a garden” and still furnished
with the original pieces, the Schwetzingen
bathhouse represents one of the last
courtly baths of their era in Europe. This
immaculately preserved, highly original
synthesis of gardening, architecture, painting
and sculpture is unique; none of the examples
cited can compare.