Schwetzingen - Schlösser-Magazin

VI.
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VI. Schwetzingen – Historical Context
Changes of Faith, War and Reconstruction
Very little information about Schwetzingen
has survived from the Reformation era. The
Peace of Augsburg, signed in 1555, made
the “cuius regio, eius religio” (“he who rules,
his religion”) principle obligatory for the
Schwetzingen subjects too – the result being
that they had to change their faith several
times. From 1698 to 1703, the Catholic church
was used by all confessions. After 1703, the
Reformed and Lutheran communities had
to make do with improvised churches for a
while. The Reformed church, built in 1758 and
much altered in 1888 and 1913, has served as
the town’s principal Protestant church since
the “Badische Kirchenunion”, the merging of
the Protestant churches of Baden, of 1821. 17
During the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648)
the village and castle suffered pillages and
billetings; in 1635, both were burned to the
ground by imperial troops under General
Gallas. Elector Carl Ludwig had the castle
rebuilt as a domicile for his second wife,
Luise von Degenfeld. A newly constructed
road, lined with walnut trees and running
in a straight line towards the “Dicker Turm”
(Squat Tower) of Heidelberg Castle, allowed
him to travel quickly between Heidelberg and
Schwetzingen. 18 The later mulberry avenue
probably adopted the same course.
In March 1689, the village and castle were
incinerated again in the course of the Palatine
War of Succession (1688-1697). On the orders
of Elector Johann Wilhelm the castle was
rebuilt and enlarged in 1698-1717. The village,
on the other hand, was not completely rebuilt
even two decades after the War of Succession.
The “Schwetzinger Schatzungsbuch” of 1717,
lists a number of new houses, but it also
mentions dilapidated buildings, bad living
conditions and empty lots, proof of the bad
economic situation caused by the war. 19
17 Martin 1933, pp. 418-420.
18 Generallandesarchiv Karlsruhe 221/Schwetzingen Nr. 447.
19 Stadtarchiv Schwetzingen B 404.
Schwetzingen’s Heyday
When the electoral court was transferred
from Heidelberg to Mannheim in 1720,
Schwetzingen became Elector Carl Philipp’s
summer residence. In order to create a grand
entry, the east-facing court of honour was
laid out, and the road leading up to it from
Heidelberg was turned into a straight avenue
lined with mulberry trees. Its course from
the foot of Königstuhl hill to Schwetzingen,
and its continuation as an axis leading on to
Kalmit, the highest point of the Pfälzer Wald
hills, is clearly visible to the present day. By
all appearances, this axis was first designed
to focus attention on the palace alone, thus
reinforcing the separation of the Oberdorf and
Unterdorf parts of the small town. 20 It was left
to Elector Carl Theodor, who came into power
in 1742, to turn the mulberry avenue into
the most prominent feature of his summer
residence’s new Baroque townscape. It was
on this road, which also provided the basis
of the enlargement of the palace gardens,
that from 1748 onwards, Oberbaudirektor
(director-in-chief of building) Alessandro Galli
da Bibiena (1687-1748) constructed his “New
Town” with its market square and the four
square blocks of buildings adjoining it to the
east. 21 The side streets meeting the avenue at
right angles, the new Mannheimer Straße and
the Gassengartenweg, later Friedrichsstraße,
opened up the new residential areas. The
intention was to connect the two separate
settlements, thus creating a new town centre,
that would replace the old village square
between the Catholic church and the town
hall, and provide an entry to the palace.
Bibiena’s layout of the market square, twice
the depth of the court of honour, creates a
space that focuses attention on the palace by
way of the buildings lining it, merging the
court of honour and the marketplace, the
palace, and the town into a unified whole. 22
At first, the new town centre was to provide
homes for those inhabitants, who had lost
20 Martin 1933, pp. 400 f.
21 Stadtarchiv Schwetzingen U 54.
22 Martin 1933, p. 402.