Schwetzingen - Schlösser-Magazin

VI.
Fig. 1: Plan showing expropriations
between 1748 and 1760
(section); the new quarter-circle
orangeries are superimposed on
the old pleasure garden (Generallandesarchiv
Karlsruhe).
180
VI. Schwetzingen – Historical Context
c)
History of the Palace Garden
1. The Origins of the Palace Garden
Architectural conditions and older gardens
on the site of Schwetzingen Palace
There is no documentation pointing to any
gardens at Schwetzingen Palace during the
14th and 15th centuries. The first garden
mentionend appears in 17th-century
documents, and in the letters of Elisabeth
Charlotte von der Pfalz (“Liselotte von der
Pfalz”) 1 . 2 It was her father, Elector Carl
Ludwig 3 , who had rebuilt the palace after the
devastations of the Thirty Years’ War and
made it into a residence for his second wife,
Luise von Degenfeld. The garden created
along with it, featured hedges, paths, trees,
vegetables, herbs, flowers and
1 Elisabeth Charlotte von der Pfalz, 1652-1722, married to the
brother of Louis XIV of France.
2 Cp. Martin 1933, pp. 18, 22.
3 Elector Palatine Carl Ludwig, 1617-1680; r. 1649-1680
walks overgrown with vines. 4 Access from
the palace to the garden was via a bridge,
because the water-filled moats surrounding
the original fortified manor were still in place.
In 1682, half of the orange and lemon trees
from the garden of the Friedrichsburg at
Mannheim were brought to Schwetzingen. 5
No information survives concerning the
housing of the citrus trees in winter.
During the Palatine War of Succession
(1688–1697) parts of the palace were
destroyed again. Elector Johann Wilhelm 6 had
it rebuilt and enlarged; the moats were filled
in, the wings enclosing the court of honour
were added, and the gatehouses were built
(1710/11). An extension was added to the west
of the corps de logis (1715-17), which today
forms the palace’s garden front.
In 1720, Elector Carl Philipp 7 moved his
court from Heidelberg to Schwetzingen, and
in 1731, on to Mannheim. Schwetzingen,
however, remained the summer palace.
The palace garden, created by the Elector is
the first of which depictions to survive. It
appears in a plan documenting expropriations
between 1748 and 1760 (see Fig. 1), and there
is also an undated view of the palace, that
shows the garden as well. This extended west
from the palace, and between 1718 and 1728
an orangery was built at its western end 8 by
the architect Alessandro Galli da Bibiena 9 .
The garden was bordered by a long one-storey
building in the south and a wall in the north.
A wide central path leading from the palace
to the orangery divided the space. Smaller
paths crossing diagonally and at right angles,
subdivided both halves. The centre featured
a fountain in a circular basin; in 1725, the
first water wheel on the site of today’s Upper
Waterworks was constructed to supply it. 10
4 Generallandesarchiv Karlsruhe (GLA) Kopialbuch 942
Heidelberg Urkunden-Abschrift Nro.363 (original dated 22nd
May 1669).
5 Thomas Alfried Leger, Führer durch den Schwetzinger Garten,
Mannheim 1829, p. 7.
6 Elector Palatine Johann Wilhelm, 1658-1716, r. 1690-1716.
7 Elector Palatine Carl Philipp, 1661-1742, r. 1716-1742.
8 Hubert Wolfgang Wertz, “Die Schwetzinger Orangerien”, in:
Der Süden im Norden, Regensburg 1999, pp. 59 f.
9 Alessandro Galli da Bibiena, d. 1748, architect.
10 Martin 1933, p. 190.