3. - Schlösser-Magazin

uildings – that rarely corresponded to actual,
preserved monuments; at Schwetzingen
examples include the Temple of Minerva
near the main parterres, the Temple of
Apollo rising over its dramatic grotto, and
the bathhouse with its aviaries. On the other
hand Pigage attempted, in the buildings he
designed for those parts of the garden newly
created by Sckell (among them the Roman
aqueduct, the Temple of Mercury and the
Turkish mosque), to stay closer to authentic
sources than had been usual in the Rococo
period. The phenomenon of the onset of
Historicism, and its relationship to the world
of the Ancien Régime, can be observed at
Schwetzingen better than anywhere else.
A Unique Creation: the Schwetzingen
Garden Spaces
In today’s surviving Baroque gardens there is
no circular garden room to match the grand
parterre at Schwetzingen. Matthias Diesel did
create a small circular garden in Harlaching
near Munich, and two ideal depictions (J.
Gamer) appear in Anton Danreiter’s 1731
book about garden layout, but the realization
of those ideas was either much more modest
than planned, or it never materialized at all.
At Schwetzingen, however, Court Gardener
Johann Ludwig Petri brilliantly used the two
quarter-circle pavilions to counteract the
“pull” of the parterre’s axes, thus creating a
magnificent whole.
The value Elector Carl Theodor placed on his
orangeries – two massive new wing pavilions
flanking the palace’s garden front were
erected for the purpose – suggests that he
must have had older models in mind besides
those from the time immediately preceding
the year 1748. Francesco Colonna’s book
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, first published in
1499, comes to mind; from the 16th-century
onwards its many illustrations have depicted
a circular core area with the island of Cythera,
and the book remained very popular with
patrons of garden art. The early botanical
gardens may have provided some inspiration
II. Report on the Garden Historical Importance: Prof. Dr. Géza Hajós
as well, for example the one at Padua; they,
too, were circular in layout, and the plants
were an object not only of scientific but also
of mythological reverence and fascination.
There may even be a connection between the
references to the Golden Age in the imagery
of the Schwetzingen garden and the circular
depiction of Paradise that had been common
since the Middle Ages. However, so far there
are no sources to support this possibility,
which for now will have to remain a matter
of conjecture – but it should not discourage
our admiration of a grand layout that does not
have its equal in the world.
Then there is the close formal connection
between the palace and the regular, geometric
layout of the town; it, too, bears witness
to an almost Utopian attitude on the part
of the ruling prince, who was determined
to integrate his subjects into the layout of
his residence – an idea both Absolutist and
Enlightened. There is a parallel example in
Oranienburg near Wörlitz, but the planning
there is altogether less grand than at
Schwetzingen, where the central axis creates
a noble sequence of landscape, garden, palace,
town and landscape. Again, it is the model
of Versailles that comes to mind – there the
settlement was laid at the ruler’s feet by
means of three axes arranged “à la patte d’oie”.
The Exemplary Care and Maintenance
of the Grounds
In the German-speaking parts of Europe
there are, and have been for several decades,
the so-called “Parkpflegewerke” – detailed
management plans drawn up to the end of
researching and analyzing historic gardens
and parks for conservation purposes,
estimating maintenance costs and defining
possible future functions without endangering
those gardens or their integrity as historic
monuments. Here, too, Schwetzingen was
a pioneer project: Around 1970 the first
Parkpflegewerk was completed here; from
around 2005 it has been critically revised,
updated and continued. I do not know of
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