3. - Schlösser-Magazin

Court Garden of Ansbach
Basic Facts
Location: Germany, state of Bavaria, city of
Ansbach
Historical outline: from 1534 laying out of a
court garden under Margrave Georg; 1596
under Margrave Georg Friedrich the Elder (r.
1596-1603) construction of a ball and opera
house, probably by Gideon Bacher, laying
out of a ”Palm square“ and “Theatre square”,
construction of a pheasant and a falcon house;
1631-1635 decline due to the Thirty-Years’
War; from 1678 the garden became a centre of
courtly life under Margrave Johann Friedrich
(r. 1672-1686); from 1691 redesign of the court
garden by Johann Lorenz Loelius, construction
of an orangery; 1723-1731 rebuilding of palace
under Margravine Christiane Charlotte by
Carl Friedrich von Zocha; from 1724 redesign
of the court garden, probably also by von
Zocha; from 1726 construction of a large
orangery from plans by von Zocha to provide
a focal architecture for the garden (which is
situated to one side of the palace), completed
1744 by Leopoldo Retti; 1753 construction
of a greenhouse; 1755 dismantling of the
obstructive ballhouse between the garden and
the palace; 1771 laying out of a promenade
with a “Mailbahn” (Mail being a game
somewhat similar to croquet) in the garden;
1791 Margravate of Ansbach is taken over by
Prussia, and courtly life expires; 1794 redesign
of court garden as a landscape garden by
Johann Peter Kern; 1945 heavy war damage
to the orangery and garden; 1950s Baroqueinspired
redesign of the court garden from
plans by Kurt Hentzen.
3. Justification for Inscription
Characteristics: In its heyday during the first
half of the 18th-century a high-ranking French
Baroque garden, today dominated by the
quasi-Baroque redesign from the second half
of the 20th-century; the planting of the beds
approximates Baroque planting patterns.
Topical Comparison
Summer residence: Not a summer residence
but the court gardens of the nearby residence
of Ansbach, the separate location having
been dictated by lack of space; the orangery
takes the place of a palace and was used
for festivities during the summer months;
topographic connection with the city largely
preserved despite urban sprawl and roadbuilding.
Synthesis of gardening styles: redesign as a
landscape garden from the late 18th-century,
largely overlaid by the new quasi-Baroque
layout created in the 20th-century.
Furnishing: no statuary in the parterre,
there probably never was; off to one side
a monument to Johann Peter Uz by Carl
Alexander von Heideloff.
Technical monuments: none documented.
Authenticity: orangery heavily damaged
in 1945, interior modernized during the
restorations of the 1950s-70s; garden area in
front of the orangery also mostly destroyed
in the war and restored in a creative neo-
Baroque style; the former kitchen garden laid
out as a rose garden post-1945, from 2001
redesignated as a medicinal herb garden, the
“Leonhart-Fuchs-Garten”, with a modern citrus
house added.
Summary
Comparability with Schwetzingen is limited.
The late 18th-century landscaping largely
eradicated the Baroque garden, retaining only
the transverse axis in the shape of a high
hedge of lime trees. After heavy war damages
it was decided in 1945 to redesign the estate
once again, in a formal, quasi-Baroque style
that does not, however, hark back to the
original Baroque. There never was coexistence,
let alone intertwining of styles at Ansbach.
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