Schwetzingen - Schlösser-Magazin

V.
Fig. 4: Re-used stones from the
stair tower in the foundations
of the straight stairs (Photo:
Knoch, Erb).
120
Fig. 5: Vertical joint (Photo:
Knoch, Erb).
V. Science and Technology
to master-builder Antonio Petrini in Würzburg
date from the same period: “…to there inspect
the walls … and send an estimate …of when
the palace can be rebuilt in the old manner”. 45
Petrini died, however, in 1701. Provisionally
competing with this, an alternative proposal
45 ibid. p. 24, and elsewhere “To build the palace again as it was
before”, ibid. p. 30.
was submitted without further enunciation
by Flémal, which included covering over
the inner courtyard, “because without this
the same is of very narrow confine”. 46 Quite
possibly this already laid the basis for the
enlargement strategy implemented in the cour
d’honneur wing in 1711. We cannot tell to
what extent the existing building combined
ideas from the various planning options.
The findings demonstrate that the solution
chosen was cheap 47 , because it dispensed
with building over the former castle yard, and
hence with the prestigious stairway expected
at the time. Although much of the previous
stock was retained, the building managed
to look like a contemporary baroque palace,
but this did call for broad changes to its
appearance.
To begin with, a fundamental decision was
taken to drain the moat, and in 1699 it was
duly filled with “rubble” on the prince’s
orders. 48 Archaeological findings have
confirmed this, and at the same time they
have provided the first deeper insights into
the new resolution of the façade: the sediment
in the moat was sealed over in the north-west
by building debris from the demolition of
the stair tower. This rubble was also used
in the foundations for the baroque stairway
risalto, which replaced the old vertical access
with a new one in the same place. 49 Together
with the demolition of the ring-work along
the castle yard, the risalto mirroring the old
south wing was the decisive change leading
to the creation of a new cour d’honneur. The
archaeological investigation has revealed that
46 ibid. p. 34, with a detailed description of the cost-related tussles
over planning according to the building records 29ff; on Flémal
recently: Heidelberg im Barock, p. 151f.
47 On this and for an overall account of the reconstruction in
1699-1715 see the contribution by Peter Knoch in this volume.
From now on reference will only be made at the appropriate
point to specific corrections resulting from recent assessments
of the excavations.
48 Source documents from the building records listed severally
in Gropp p. 28, 34. Unlike Knoch, who assumes without documentary
evidence that the moat was refilled for the renovations
under Elector Carl Ludwig. This is also belied by indications
in the building records that the bridge over the moat was to
be repaired, and also several references to the two stair towers,
Gropp, p. 2 ff.
49 The allocation following Gropp to the phase under Carl Ludwig
is based on a misreading of the written sources.