3. - Schlösser-Magazin

3. Great
58
3. Justification for Inscription
Garden of Herrenhausen
Basic Facts
Location: Germany, state of Niedersachsen,
city of Hannover
Historical outline: Raised to the status of a
summer residence in1666 by Duke Johann
Friedrich; earliest gardens by Michael Grosse;
c.1675 enlarged, with framing bosquets
added, by Henri Perronnet; 1676-80 extension
of the palace by Hieronymo Sartorio; from
1690 enlargement and redesign of the garden
commissioned by Duke (from 1692 Elector)
Ernst August and his wife Sophie, carried out
by Martin Charbonnier; from 1714 personal
union with England; until 1755 the Kings
spend every other summer at Herrenhausen;
1814 constitution of the kingdom of
Hanover; 1819-21 Classicist redesign of the
palace by Georg Ludwig Friedrich Laves;
1851-62 a summer residence again; 1862 the
permanent residence of King Georg V; 1866
annexed by Prussia; 1936-37 property of the
city of Hanover; restored, with alterations
in an imaginatively Baroque style, under
the direction of Hermann Wernicke; 1943
destruction of the palace; 1956/66 restoration
by Karl Heinrich Meyer; from 1999 redesign
of the former flower garden and restoration of
the parterres; 2008 restoration of the garden
theatre.
Characteristics: With its strong Dutch
influence the garden represents an
intermediate stage in history (Hennebo) and
conforms to the ideals of the French “Régence
style (Hansmann). Today it is characterized
by the creative reconstructions of the 1930s
based on surviving original features, and by a
large number of additions.
Topical Comparison
Summer residence: Herrenhausen served as a
summer residence, and occasionally a main
residence, for long periods of time. With the
exception of the palace itself all functional
features and premises survive; so do the axes
connecting the estate with the main seat of
power and the manors on the banks of the
Leine.
Synthesis of gardening styles: The large
garden was never redesigned to conform to
the landscaped style as Herrenhausen was
not used as a residence during that style’s
German heyday in the late 18th and early
19th-centuries. Later regarded as a monument
in the history of the Welfish dynasty, the
structure was preserved and individual
elements (buildings, sculptures) were restored.
Many water features were modernized.
Furnishing: Lavish 18th-century statuary
almost completely preserved, the originals
are displayed in the garden; in the 1930s
sculptures and urns from Salzdahlum were
installed in the newly laid out additional
gardens; no follies.
Technical monuments: none surviving from
the 18th-century; the water wheels and pumps
of the water features rebuilt in 1860 are
preserved and functional.
Authenticity: basic structure, major defining
elements and large parts of the Baroque
garden’s furnishing are preserved; in 1936
some characteristic “useful” features (the
orchards set into the triangles of the southern
bosquet area) and 19th-century buildings
(pavilion, “Kronprinzenwache” and numerous
greenhouses) were lost to redesign; today’s
appearance is largely due to the creative
reconstructions (parterre) and additions of the
20th-century.