3. - Schlösser-Magazin

Palatina; 1773: publication of the survey map
Map of Palatine at a Scale of 1:75000) In 1761
Schwetzingen was one of approximately 120
places across the world in which the Transit of
Venus (the passage of Venus across the face of
the sun) was observed and measured.
The advancement of theatre and music also
contributed to Schwetzingen’s European
standing: nowhere in Europe was the
programme of a theatre more varied. It
was in Schwetzingen that the first opera
was written and staged in German (Ignaz
Holzbauer, 1776: Günther von Schwarzburg),
and Schwetzingen’s theatre and opera
repertoire was generally critical of the
established hierarchy, presenting the public
with Enlightenment ideals. Visitors such
as Voltaire (1753), whose tragedy Olimpie
premiered in the palace theatre in 1762,
Leopold Mozart with his children Wolfgang
und Nannerl (1763), and Casanova (1767)
all bear witness to the appeal Schwetzingen
exerted during this period.
Prince Elector Carl Theodor was the focal
point of Electoral Palatinate society. Born
at Drogenbos Palace near Brussels in 1724,
Carl Theodor spent his childhood in Belgium.
After his father’s death in 1733 he succeeded
to the status of heir to the Electoral Palatinate,
and from 1734 onwards he was educated
in Mannheim by tutors including the Jesuit
Francois de Fegely, known as “Father Seedorf”
(1691-1758), who retained considerable
influence over Carl Theodor right up until
his death in 1758. Another figure who
enjoyed a position of influence at the court
was Carl Theodor’s wife, Elisabeth Auguste, a
cousin and grandchild of Prince Elector Carl
Philipp who had grown up in Mannheim and
Schwetzingen.
2. Description
Creation of Carl Theodor’s
“Garden Residence”
Finding in Mannheim an already functioning
courtly residence with what was at the time
one of the largest castles in existence, Carl
Theodor chose Schwetzingen as the place
to exercise his architectural whims, and
commissioned the building of an entirely
new kind of residence, one that incorporated
already existing structures but which focused
on the gardens.
The expansion of Schwetzingen that started in
1748 was planned so as to extend features of
the cour d’honneur eastwards into the town;
this is visible in the height of the buildings
and the roof types chosen. Square blocks
of houses were built along the main axis to
connect the two original mediaeval settlement
foci. With the annual use of Schwetzingen as
the Prince Elector’s summer residence came
the construction of small mansions at the
boundary of palace and town: Palais Hirsch
(1749; built for Carl Theodor’s confessor, the
Jesuit priest Franz Joseph Seedorf), Palais
Rabaliatti (1755; built for the court architect
Franz Wilhelm Rabaliatti); the Forestry
Office (1760; originally home to the electoral
gamekeeper), Palais Ysenburg (construction
started 1769; built for the electoral chief
gardener Van Wynder).
2.
Portrait of Prince Elector Carl
Theodor by Johann Georg
Ziesenis, 1758.
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