Schwetzingen - Schlösser-Magazin

The “litmus test” is to analyse the fabric.
Peter Knoch provides an updated overview
of the construction history, which makes
any additional description here superfluous. 5
Findings and features will only be singled
out for discussion if they were key to either
the genesis of the corps de logis and/or any
retrospective stage-management in the façade
around the “Cour d’honneur”. It has long
been recognized that the two dominant tower
risaltos were not cast from the same mould,
and that there are significant differences in
their rustication. The rough opus rusticum of
the south tower marks the oldest surviving
section, always regarded as the “keep” of the
medieval “fort” first mentioned in 1350. The
pointed cushion bossage of the north wing
dates back to the extensions carried out under
Count Palatine Ludwig V (r. 1508-1544). 6
This legacy was integrated into the baroque
reconstruction (1699-1715) after the great fire
in the War of Succession (1689), and it is still
a striking element today.
I. The factors that determined the
presentation of the baroque “Corps de logis”
can now be related with greater precision to
the ground plan. The older tower meets the
south-east corner of a moated castle with
almost square ring-work. 7 Excavations have
shown that in structural terms this was not
the fort recorded in 1350, which was assumed
to have originated earlier. 8 The pottery from
the construction layers on the inside
5 More far-reaching progress on the “pre-baroque” construction
history was achieved by archaeological investigations during
structural safety measures in 2006. For a detailed description
of finds, structural interpretations, periodization and dating,
see the final report, A. Wendt, 2008, Archiv des Staatlichen
Vermögens- und Hochbauamtes Mannheim, Bauleitung
Schwetzingen.
6 Still fundamental on this and surviving literature, Gropp:
Schwetzinger Schloß.
7 Cf. Peter Knoch’s contribution in this volume. New is the
evidence of large sections of the east and north walls in the excavations
of 2006. Sections of the base course were occasionally
sighted from building works in the south in 1980. In the west
the base is exposed in the cellars of the western annex of 1715.
Apart from a foundation documented in the cour d’honneur in
2006, nothing is known as yet about the internal divisions.
8 The proposed dates were hitherto either close to the first record
in 1350 or associated with the Stauffen period because of the
bossage.
V. Science and Technology
are only from the decades around 1400. 9 It
coincides so closely with the Count Palatinate
taking ownership 10 that it is presumably a
manifestation of that event, in the form of
substantial new building – that would be
a decisive consideration in preserving the
“keep”.
Above the base course, of cut stone all round,
the otherwise towerless ring-work was only
bossed across its eastern surface, where it
joined the “keep”, which means that even then
it had been formulated as a show front. 11 The
9 Dendrochronological data from the pile structure in the
foundations yield tpq 1305 without sapwood and forest edge;
see final report, Wendt 2008.
10 The precise sequence of events is unknown. The cession was
presumably related to Ruprecht I’s relationship to Else von
Schoenenburg, who was still recorded as the owner in 1350. In
the will of Elector Ludwig III, by 1426 the castle had long since
belonged to the Count Palatine. On the written sources see:
Martin: Schwetzingen.
11 The other sides were made above the ground floor of rendered
rough stone.
V.
Fig. 2: Schwetzingen, corps
de logis. East front elevation
and ground plan, provisional
chronological map (Photo:
Wendt, Dolmazon, BDK 2007).
NORD
NORD
SCHLOSS SCHWETZINGEN
CORPS DE SCHLOSS LOGIS SCHWETZINGEN
Baualtersplan CORPS DE LOGIS
Entwurf Stand: 01. Baualtersplan
01. 07
Entwurf Stand: 01. 01. 07
MA 2 1.H.15.Jh.
MA 2 1.H.15.Jh.
FNZ 1 1527d - 1541a
FNZ 1 1527d - 1541a
FNZ 2 1699 - 1702
FNZ 2 1699 - 1702
FNZ 3 1711 - 1715
FNZ 3 1711 - 1715
0 m 10 m
0 m 10 m
Fig. 3: Schwetzingen, corps de
logis. Suggested reconstruction
of the east front of the former
moated castle c. 1530/40
(Photo: Schöneweis, BDK 2008).
115