Schwetzingen - Schlösser-Magazin

IV.
Fig. 8: Map showing the
boundaries of Schwetzingen,
1872-78, section. When the
town grew in the course of the
19th century, Bibiena’s plan
was largely followed. In 1870
,Schwetzingen became part
of the railway network, and a
station was built on the eastern
perimeter of the town.
96
IV. Palace Gardens: Role and Significance
The Historic Cultural Landscape of
Schwetzingen Today
The surroundings of Schwetzingen, the
appearance of the town itself and its
ground plan in particular, are still largely
characterized by the large-scale building and
landscaping undertaken by the ruling Electors
of the 18th century.
Even today Bibiena’s plans for a “New
Town”, drawn up as part of Schwetzingen’s
conversion into a summer residence, are
clearly visible in the course of the streets. The
layout of today’s palace square and main axes
has survived almost unaltered, as have the
street courses of the earlier settlements, the
villages of Oberdorf and Unterdorf.
The former electoral avenue and the
market square are lined with a closed front
of individual buildings, as intended by
the Baroque building plan. The Baroque
structures 41 have been added to, and
occasionally replaced, in the course of the
19th and 20th centuries. Traces of the earlier
rural buildings survive in some of the side
streets.
As in earlier times, the Leimbach, serving as
an open moat, separates the town centre from
the palace area. The shape and layout of the
palace itself 42 and the garden adjoining it to
the west, still convey the appearance of the
18th-century summer palace. The original
intention of extending the main axes beyond
the confines of the park is still apparent: north
towards the circus, this is achieved by the
houses on the tree-lined Lindenstraße avenue,
west up to the motorway crossing by the trees
lining the street, where the original lane used
to be cut into the woodland. Southwest of
the gardens where the hunting park used to
be the eight-lane “Jagdstern” survives in the
shape of a crossing of eight paths.
Large sections of the main west-east axis,
the avenue of mulberry trees created at the
beginning of the 18th century to connect
Schwetzingen and Heidelberg, survive in the
form of paths and of sections of the former
railway route to Heidelberg, still directing the
view towards Königstuhl. Likewise, the older
Schwetzingen-Heidelberg connection further
north still recalls the 17th-century road, the
“Neuer Weg”.
Up to the present day, the early 21st
century, the historic cultural landscape of
Schwetzingen is characterized largely by the
heritage of its Palatine past. Supplementing
this are the remains of the earlier rural
settlements, and the heritage of the industrial
age.
41 Cp. parts of the 1760s stables and the buildings to the south of
the square.
42 Cp. Martin, pp. 76, 190 ff. Besides the palace itself the 1760s
waterworks and the guardhouses from the late 18th century
survive.