3. - Schlösser-Magazin

“Arboretum” is at the very beginning of a fullscale
fashion for arboreta that was to spread
throughout Europe in the following decades.
- The “Court theatre”, built as an annexe of the
northern quarter-circle pavilion, is the world’s
earliest surviving balcony theatre and the
ideal type of an acoustic space. It was one of
the first, and today is the last surviving, court
theatre built according to the demands raised
by progressive architectural theoreticians of
the time.
- The bathhouse is one of the last remaining
Baroque bathing facilities, and can still be
experienced in its own sophisticated, carefully
orchestrated microcosm. “The shape of the
building, too, is unique: a complex, historicalcritical
variation of Palladian villa architecture.
(...) Pigage’s avant-garde attitude towards
architecture shows in the details: with the
semicircular entrance conch partitioned off
with a pair of columns in place of the usual
temple portico, Pigage was the first to use a
motif found in Classical thermae architecture
for the exterior of a building, a solution that
was to become a leitmotif of early Classicism”
(Hesse, 2006). With its well-documented
furnishing and its dimensions the bathhouse
represents a turning point in the culture of
the summer residence. Its explicit, exclusively
private use in a very modern sense is an
entirely new feature of courtly garden use.
- The design for the Schwetzingen “Mosque”
uses inspirations taken from its predecessor
at Kew Gardens and from the work of Fischer
von Erlach to create a new and independent
synthesis. The Schwetzingen structure far
surpasses all garden mosques of its time in
its monumental dimensions, lavish décor
and high-minded programme. It represents
a serious attempt at understanding other
religions and philosophies and finding
common intellectual ground in a spirit of
Enlightenment-era tolerance. The Mosque’s
cultural and historical significance is not
merely in the fact that it is the largest garden
mosque ever built but in that it is today the
last surviving 18th-century specimen of
its type of architectural feature in European
3. Justification for Inscription
landscape gardens. It is hardly surprising
that Jean-Charles Krafft wrote about the
Schwetzingen Mosque: „The magnificence of
this monument is such that Europe cannot
offer the like”.
3. The summer residence of Schwetzingen
is completely preserved both typologically
(i.e. with regard to its function) and
topographically – a phenomenon unique in all
of Europe.
The ruler’s privilege of spending the
summers in an ancillary residence fitted out
specifically for the purpose reached its heyday
in 18th-century German-speaking Europe,
and took on a characteristic, ceremonially
underpinned appearance too. During the
reign of Elector Carl Theodor, a period lasting
several decades, the entire electoral household
would move from the main residence in
the city of Mannheim every year to spend
several months in the rural setting of the
summer residence at Schwetzingen. At
Mannheim courtly life was characterized by
pomp and ceremony; Schwetzingen offered
an opportunity for enjoyment and relaxation.
This period in Schwetzingen’s history, during
which it took on the role of summer capital
of the Electoral Palatinate, has determined its
layout up to the present day. The property
consists of a town aligned with the palace and
formally subordinate to it, the palace, large in
relation to the town and itself comparatively
plain in style, and the gardens – vast by
comparison and easily holding their own
with their numerous buildings and features.
The particular “summer residence” character
of court life at Schwetzingen is also evident
in the number of venues for theatrical and
musical performance within the property.
The concentration of features of cultural and
historical interest left by an era lasting almost
fifty years provides an unparalleled view into
the second half of the 18th-century. In the
town numerous buildings necessary for the
day-to-day working of the summer residence
have survived, among them the electoral
stables, the disabled soldiers’ barracks, the
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