3. - Schlösser-Magazin

III.
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III. Report on the Excellence of Garden
Conservation in Schwetzingen
The Global Significance of the Electoral
Residence at Schwetzingen
Report on the Gardens
The absolutely unique heritage significance
of Schwetzingen gardens rests largely on two
factors: firstly, the archetypal and outstandingly
conserved Baroque areas; and in addition, also
from the eighteenth-century, from the period
of the Enlightenment, the areas designed in
the sentimental landscape style, all of which is
incorporated into a grand residence which has
a town bordering directly onto it.
These features of garden, building and
urban design come together to form an
ideal embodiment of an eighteenth-century
royal residence; and they are supplemented
by a further, remarkable and increasingly
appreciated, factor that establishes
Schwetzingen‘s unique heritage status, namely
the exemplary continuity of preservation and
maintenance of the splendid gardens that
has been practised there over the years. This
awareness of the importance of conserving the
gardens was in place at an incomparably early
point of time; it was clear from the earliest
days of the gardens that they constituted a
work of art of the highest order, a monument
which as early as 1768 prompted Voltaire,
the renowned philosopher, to sigh, „I wish to
enjoy one more comfort before I die -- I wish
to see Schwetzingen again!“ It was felt as early
as the end of the eighteenth-century that the
undisturbed authenticity and the great variety
of design of the gardens needed to be preserved
for posterity as the legacy of an enlightened
absolutism.
While the significance of Schwetzingen palace
gardens in terms of art history and garden
design has been honoured in numerous and
comprehensive treatises in recent years,
attention has only recently come to be drawn
to the quality of conservation work carried
out, work based on scientific research into
conservation issues as well as a wealth
of experience. For this reason, I shall be
focusing here primarily on the conservation
aspects contributing to the uniqueness of
Schwetzingen‘s status.
The greatest respect is accorded these days
to the value of authenticity when properties
are considered for World Heritage status,
a criterion which is of particular relevance
in the case of properties with an increased
risk of alteration such as gardens, parks
and agricultural landscapes. It is here that
Schwetzingen comes into its own. Alongside
comprehensive preservation of gardens
originating from two eras and associated with
the best designers of the time -- the Baroque
gardens by Johann Ludwig Petri (1714-1794)
and Nicolas de Pigage (1723-1796), and the
landscape gardens by Johann Wilhelm Sckell
(1721-1792) and his son, Friedrich Ludwig
Sckell (1759-1823) -- the quality of preservation
found at Schwetzingen derives from the
conservation strategies employed at the end
of the eighteenth-century, an extraordinarily
early point in the history of European garden
conservation. The core concern even then was
not only to preserve the gardens themselves
in situ together with the administrative and
planning arrangements that went along with
them, as set in place by Prince Elector Carl
Theodor of the Palatinate (1724-1799), whose
reign saw the Palatinate, and Schwetzingen
with it, develop into one of the most advanced
and modern residences of the eighteenthcentury;
but also to develop the heritage
inherent in Schwetzingen further while largely
adhering to the original design of the property.
We have now come to accept, at least since
the Charter on Historic Gardens passed by
the International Council of ICOMOS-IFLA
in Florence in 1981, our responsibility to
authenticity in maintaining and developing
our garden heritage, thus putting an end to the
the era of „creative garden conservation“ with
its attendant absurdities such as the „Blooming
Baroque“ in Ludwigsburg. Schwetzingen
is a forerunner in this respect, having
demonstrated what can only be described as
exemplary commitment to authenticity from
an extraordinarily early date, namely the latter
stages of the eighteenth-century.