3. - Schlösser-Magazin

6.
156
6. Monitoring
THE MOSQUE AND CLOISTER
Prof. Dr. Michael Hesse
„ “
… the mosque in the Schwetzingen palace grounds would be of outstanding historical and art
historical value for the sole reason that it is the only surviving building of a type once quite
common in 18th-century European landscape gardens. However, the Schwetzingen mosque
by its sheer dimensions, the magnificence of its décor and the sophistication of its underlying
programme surpasses all other known garden mosques, and in fact all “Oriental” buildings
of its time. […] in contrast to the other, lost garden mosques the Schwetzingen structure
was neither a mere set piece nor an exotic summer house. The entirety of the architecture,
decorative elements and inscriptions, among them quotes from the Koran, bears witness to
a sincere and heartfelt desire to approach a different religion, and the quotes of Oriental
wisdom, on a basis of tolerance in search of the common principle of Enlightened reason.