Schwetzingen - Schlösser-Magazin

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The Collection and Cultivation of
Exotic Plants
The Schwetzingen Orangeries
The Old Orangery
In 1681, half the lemon and orange trees in
the garden of the Friedrichsburg at Mannheim
were transferred to Schwetzingen. By this
time, if not before, there must have been a
considerable collection of orangery plants, all
housed in appropriate buildings. There was a
growing demand for space to accommodate
court festivities, and this was far from met
by rebuilding the palace destroyed in 1689
during the Palatine War of Succession,
extending it along the “Cour d’honneur” and
adding the extension by the garden in the
early 18th century. Further construction was
required.
An orangery with a large ballroom was to
alleviate the problem. That, at least, was
what Elector Carl Philipp decided when, in
1716, he succeeded Johann Wilhelm, whose
principal residence had been Düsseldorf. Carl
Philipp brought the court back to Heidelberg,
and later he needed Schwetzingen to cater
for the overspill until his new residence in
Mannheim, under construction from 1720,
was ready for occupancy.
When work began on the orangery in 1718,
nobody could predict that it would take a
good ten years to complete. Progress was
delayed by a lack of funding. The skeleton of
this structure, designed as a pendant to the
new garden front of the palace, was not ready
until 1722, and the space between – intended
as an orangery garden – began to acquire its
contours. Alessandro Galli da Bibiena, “primus
architectus” at the Palatine court since 1719,
was designated architect.
When the plants from the celebrated orangery
in Düsseldorf were likewise brought to
Schwetzingen in 1724, the gardeners hoped
in vain that work would proceed at a faster
pace. The tubs had to spend the winter in the
IV. Palace Gardens: Role and Significance
half-finished orangery. Even the glasshouse
intended for the breeding and particular
cultivation of citrus fruits was delayed. The
passage between the palace and the orangery
along the southern perimeter of the site was
completed in 1725, but that also failed to
satisfy the need for space. Court gardener
Johann Betting was probably justified
in calling for a second passage along the
northern edge. Betting had, after all, been
transferred from Düsseldorf to Schwetzingen
in 1722 in order to establish a sizeable
stock of citrus. But only in the orangery did
construction continue. The records indicate
that it was finished in 1728.
Elector Carl Theodor, who succeeded Carl
Philipp in 1742, finally permitted partial
demolition of the old orangery to press ahead
with new plans for the garden, which in 1748
provided for a new orangery in the form of
the northern quarter-circle pavilion. Once
the southern quarter-circle pavilion had been
completed in 1755, the old orangery was laid
to rest for once and for all.
Detailed records of the orangery’s inventory
date from 1724, when the plants from
Düsseldorf were moved to Schwetzingen. 447
orange trees and 313 other potted plants were
transported down the Rhine by barge as far as
Ketsch, an enterprise that cost 750 guilders. In
1726 there was a need for “100 new orangerie
boxes” for re-potting purposes. On 4 March
1728 comes notification of a requirement for
100 “orange boxes, but only of the small type”.
Johann Friedrich von Uffenbach paints
a picture of the orangery garden, for he
visited Schwetzingen on a jaunt through the
Palatinate on 9 September 1731. He describes
the garden as “neatly laid out and most
pleasant after the latest fashion, although
not at all big. Its most excellent feature is, it
would seem, the number of Italian plants and
trees, for the garden is thickly planted with
them like a small forest. Many specimens,
set in their special boxes, are well worth
the sight, on account of their considerable
size, and between them statues larger than
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