Schwetzingen - Schlösser-Magazin

III.
Fig. 7: Interior detail of a
corner pavilion at Schwetzingen
(Photo: Förderer).
46
III. Architectural Features
and Württemberg; Pigage himself travelled
to Württemberg. 20 The similarities between
the Schwetzingen mosque and Hohenheim
were noted by contemporaries too, as shown
by a letter written by Friedrich Hölderlin in
1788: “They have a Turkish mosque (a temple)
here; some people might not even notice it
among all these beauties, but I liked it best of
them all. The whole thing is like Hohenheim
and the solitude taken together, as far as I am
concerned.” 21
It should be mentioned that another
mosque had been built in 1783/84 at Kassel-
Wilhelmshöhe, once again modeled closely
on Kew. 22 However, the Schwetzingen cloister,
with its corner pavilions, is unique among
the German imitations in its individual and
imaginative reworking of the inspiration,
provided by Kew and the depiction of Mecca by
Fischer von Erlach.
20 Stefan Moebus, “Ein Künstleraustausch zwischen Württemberg
und Kurpfalz”, in: Schwäbische Heimat, No. 1999/3, pp. 329-
340.
21 Hölderlin was probably referring to the mosque in the
Hohenheim garden, built 1778. Cp. Andrea Berger-Fix/Klaus
Merten, Die Gärten der Herzöge von Württemberg im 18.
Jahrhundert, exhibition catalogue, Worms 1981, catalogue no.
51: Hohenheim mosque.
Friedrich Hölderlin in a letter to his mother, in: Adolf Beck
(ed.), Hölderlin: Sämtliche Werke, vol. 6. (Briefe), Stuttgart
1954, p. 32.
22 On German reactions to the Kew mosque: Adrian von Buttlar,
“Chinoiserien in deutschen Gärten des 18. Jahrhunderts”, in:
Sir William Chambers und der Englisch-Chinesische Garten in
Europa, Stuttgart 1995, pp. 72 ff.
The Mosque Building
The Schwetzingen mosque is not a purely
Oriental building. The use of the dome is
characteristic of the style of an Ottoman
mosque; but then this, on the other hand,
developed as a reaction to the Byzantine
dome of the Hagia Sophia, which left such an
enormous impression on Turkish architects
after the capture of Constantinople, that they
consequently copied it and tried to improve
on it . 23 Christian and Islamic forms were thus
blended and reinterpreted. In this context, the
octagonal central plan of the Schwetzingen
mosque with its tambour and dome could be
considered an embodiment of the blending
of numerous architectural influences. Domed
tambours, for example, are not a frequent
feature of Ottoman mosques, but they are not
unheard of either. 24
Pigage was evidently trying to use authentic
Islamic elements in the design of his mosque.
At the same time, he relied on his own
knowledge of European and contemporary
forms, to provide architectural points of
reference and a connection with familiar
categories. In his mosque, Pigage used
traditional shapes of Islamic buildings – the
square, octagon and circle. At the same time
and contrary to Islamic tradition, which tends
to keep these elements distinct and separate,
he combined them into an indivisible whole. 25
On the east side of the Schwetzingen mosque
there are two round towers; in the west, two
quarter-circular walls connect the building
with the minarets. The two slender minarets
are based on Turkish models, but do not
taper to a point; instead they are crowned
with onion domes. The western front has a
Classicist portico. The mosque is thus a blend
of European Baroque and Classicist as well as
Islamic architectural shapes.
So far no direct models have been identified
for the mosque building. The elements
derived from Ottoman architecture were
23 Ulya Vogt-Göknil, Die Moschee. Grundformen sakraler
Baukunst, Zürich 1978, pp. 127 ff.
24 One example of a free-standing tambour is the Selimiye
mosque in Istanbul. Cp. Vogt-Göknil 1978, p. 111.
25 Heber 1986, p. 626.