3. - Schlösser-Magazin

Comparison of Outstanding
Artistic Achievements
The Circular Parterre
The so-called circular parterre or “Zirkel“ 1
is the garden’s dominant large feature. It
is based on a plan drawn up by the court
gardener, Johann Ludwig Petri, in 1753 and
in this marks the end of a discussion that had
been going on since the accession of Elector
Carl Theodor in 1742, about the further
development of the palace and estate. The
decision was preceded by much wavering and
ambiguity, but the result is decisive, the shape
clear and unambiguous. 2
In 1748 the Elector commissioned the
building of the northern quarter-circle
pavilion immediately adjacent to the palace.
The architect was Alessandro Galli da Bibiena,
who at the same time planned the layout of
the Schlossplatz and the four large blocks
to the east of it that would determine the
appearance of the town, and connect the
two earlier settlements. In the course of the
following years several designs for a new
palace building were circulated, and those
were already drawn up by Nicolas de Pigage.
Among the options were a palace built in the
centre of the circle already indicated in size
and location by the quarter-circle pavilion 3 ,
something that would have conformed to
the traditional star shape of the hunting
lodge in particular – witness the nearby and
1 Zeyher (1807, p. 23) and Sckell (1825, p. 295) refer to the
garden that describes a perfect circle or the Cirkus, the
Protokollum commissionale (1795) mentions the „central
part of the Great Circle“, Leger (1828; pp. 37, 44) refers to the
large front garden and the great amphitheatre, Schoch (1990,
p. 21) emphasizes the unusual arangement. The first to refer
to the feature as a circular parterre is Gothein (1914, p. 269),
also Hennebo, Hoffmann (1965, p. 362) und Hansmann (1983,
p. 286). Martin (1933, p. 141) is the only one to use the term
“Kreisparterre”. Other authors refer to the circle as a ground
plan ornament and a room (Hallbaum 1928; p. 104), to the
magnificent round of the circular space (Heicke 1937, p. 252),
Gamer (1979; p. 20f) the circle, the parterre, the central-plan
composition and to a unique spatial creation (Hajos 2006).
2 Carl Theodor stated that he not only graciously approved „the
renewed laying-out of the palace garden here, according to the
plan submitted by the court gardener of Pfalz-Zweibrücken“
but decreed specifically that the direction of the work should
belong to “none other than the aforementioned court gardener
Petri” (Martin 1933, p. 139).
3 Wiltrud Heber: Die Arbeiten des Nicolas de Pigage in den ehemals
kurpfälzischen Residenzen Mannheim und Schwetzingen.
Manuskripte zur Kunstwissenschaft vol.10. Vol. 1.2. Worms 1986.
3. Justification for Inscription
more or less contemporaneous examples of
Clemenswerth (1737-1747), of Favorite near
Ludwigsburg (1717-23) and of Waghäusel
Hermitage (1724). Another option would have
been to build the palace to the north of the
intended circle 4 , which would have had the
benefit of orientating the estate towards the
main residence of Mannheim. However, the
building of the second, mirror-image quartercircle
pavilion by Franz Wilhelm Rabaliatti
in 1752-54 put paid to those deliberations,
and the somewhat old-fashioned palace was
retained both in location and in its existing
shape.
Working on the circular parterre (1753-1758)
Petri now had two ”berceaux de treillage“
constructed to provide a mirror image of
the semicircle formed by the pavilions –
latticework arbour walks that together with
the pavilions circumscribed a full circle of vast
proportions. The cross contained within the
circle is outlined with parterre beds over the
width of the castle, both continuing the layout
of the town and providing the coordinate axes
of the entire garden. The Schlossplatz of 1748
represents the completion of the Baroque
layout of Schwetzingen, the circular parterre
its crowning glory.
In terms of the orchestration of a ruler’s estate
the retaining of the location and orientation of
the palace could be seen as a visual anchoring
in Palatine history, as the summer residence’s
main axis confirms and re-emphasizes the
avenue connecting it with Heidelberg that
had been laid out in the early 18th-century.
By contrast the links with Mannheim
are established by way of quasi-Arcadian
allusions, almost Utopian in nature, as it were
– an approach that can be found elsewhere in
the garden too but is introduced in the great
parterre. 5 With the placing and arrangement
4 Johann Michael Zeyher, G. Roemer: Beschreibung der Gartenanlagen
zu Schwetzingen. Mannheim 1809, p. 19.
5 The diorama next to the bathhouse is of particular significance
in this respect. The paradisiac landscape depicted conforms to
the topographic situation of Mannheim, which in this way is
imagined as a city founded in Elysium.
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