The castle garden of Schwetzingen is a garden paradise of international standing. The garden has an amazing special structure. Today the unprepared visitor who passes through the middle castle gate will be taken aback by the sheer size of the parterres and the wide heaven above, and the views into the distance. One is transported away from every day life by the infinity of space, surrounded by light and colour. This is a magical moment, that lifts an ingenious garden creation, distinctive from other parks and green spaces.
This
impression is reinforced by the northern and southern side wings of the castle which give
the garden a semicircular enclosure. In the West, this enclosure is mirrored by
arcades (Berceaux de treillage), so that a circular frame is created.
A garden
theatre in the largest scale, which plays with the elements: sky, water and
earth represented by ornamental gravel and plant landscapes.
The garden
reveals a wealth of other outstanding areas, buildings, water features and even
a mosque with a Turkish garden that was built as an exotic garden ornament. At
the northern side wing a rococo theatre was built of international standing.
Ornate statues and fountains are spread over the whole garden.
Additionally and even more exciting, Elector Carl Theodor (1724-1799) installed a lovely garden
within the garden, only for himself and his closest guests, with ingenious
creations of a bath house, a birdbath, a Temple to Apollo and behind that an
open-air theatre. All these rococo ideas combined in the smallest of spaces.The still young baroque garden was finally supplemented (and fortunately not reshaped) with an English garden and arboretum in the 1770s by the young architect Ludwig von Sckell, the son of a gardener of the Castle Gardens of Schwetzingen. A brilliant creation which adds to the whole garden another historic superlative, namely to be one of the first English landscape gardens on German soil
Let’s
start our tour at the castle. On each side of the four main paths to the
central fountain are two rows of linden trees whose crowns are conical in
shape. The baroque circle parterre has been restored step by step since the
1990s and the over-moldings of the lawn and mature
trees removed. The garden preservation office has agreed to resurrect here an older design
to fully show off the beauty of the garden and also preserve the interlikned
baroque elements. Linked with each
other again they are brought back to blasting! Especially the new flowerbeds
and gravelled ornaments that emphasise the old pools and fountains. They work well
together with the vista of leading avenue trees that act as a prelude and
introduction both for the Turkish garden, but rather more for the authentic
rococo open-air theatre with the Apollo temple and bathhouse.
The
trees are historically correctly shaped in a conical form which makes them look
like immature specimens and are no longer box-shaped as in earlier baroque
gardens. The whole design of the trees holds a form that creates a softer frame.
Passing
the centre fountain to the right, you arrive at the entrance of the Rococo Theatre and next to
it open the Linden gazebos which rise as tall as a house to impress by their
monumentality and almost modern sculptural style. Next to it is a sunken
rectangular garden parterre in front of the new Orangery. This Orangery garden
is surrounded by a moat and arranged rather cautiously with potted plants and
colourful summer annuals and perennial planting. However, this is necessary to
create a buffer to the private garden paradise of Carl Theodor. Since the
retreat of the Elector was accessible only by him and special guests there was
a need to seclude this part of the garden from the main axis of the park and
castle. The Orangery garden is reminiscent of a Flemish water garden with its
circumferential water canal and white wooden bridges and is framed beautifully
by the Orangery which is built with red sandstone.
A
nondescript rear passage then leads to a natural open-air theatre which provides a
breathtaking view of the Temple of Apollo, which dominates this tree clearing.
It stands on a hidden foundation that includes a cave and is connected by a
water feature with the slightly lower-lying natural theatre. Nearby is the
formal sequence of cascades, an invigorating element in the otherwise aesthetically
and spatially quiet and secure composition. The shapes of the floor plans and
ornaments of the lawn, staircases and walls are elegantly decorated in 'style
rocaille', the Rococo style, worked and adapted to the surrounding natural
patterns in a manner that is reminiscent of modern, flowing, natural design. 
A
complex composition with rhythm and balance through hedges, steps, different
levels, columns and figures, tension and relaxed motions in the lines, colours,
light and shadows, sounds of the water and tranquility of the surrounding park.
With
this cosmos of winding paths with beech hedges connected is the private residence
of the Elector, the so called bath house. The name comes from a large bathroom inside. The house was a
private retreat and place of residence of the Elector, glam on the ground plan
and with beautiful equipment inside, but much more beautiful from its outer
shape. It looks like a large gazebo with side extensions. A private place,
inviting and calming. Carl Theodor links his concept of a garden retreat inside
and outside, which is actually a modern idea, and connects the house with the
natural theatre and the bird bath outside and together these spaces (and garden
rooms!) create an organic composition. The bird bath is a pergola-like creation
outside in the rococo style, playful, gorgeous flowing lines with one purpose:
to make a room for the enjoyment of life through a skilful blend of aviary,
intimate shaded seating under a pergola, fountains with an artificial
theatrical perspective, which shows the end of the world, a magical place here and there.
Alongside is a walled gravelled courtyard in classic rectangular proportions (ideal for an outdoor celebration) and a beautifully gilded wrought-iron inlet port that completes the garden within the garden.
If you then enter the northern and southern Angloise and each subsequent northern
and southern shrubbery (which are on the circle pit following, half round and
then rectangular garden compartments with geometric paths, hedges and arcades),
this calms the senses and relaxes you. However, this relaxation is short-lived,
because there are very interesting garden features interspersed. A shepherd god
Pan on the rock with slow running water is a meditative place, and grounds the
mood. We continue our walk in contentplative mood.
Another bird bath with a snake-like water channel follows. A temple of Minerva, and other groups of figures vary the way and capture the visitor.
At the
other end, diagonally opposite to the bathhouse, there is a further highlight
of German garden architecture. Surprisingly, you stand in front of a mosque
with large attachments that resemble a cloister and a Turkish garden. The
mosque is reflected in the informal landscaped lake behind it and leaves the
mind wandering between the real 'world of illusion' of a mosque in Baden and
the unreal world of mirrors. A highly amusing game. An exotic theme park as we
enter the 18th century. In the mosque no religious ceremonies were performed, the
mosque-like building was understood to reflect Lessing's sense of the spritual
world and not any special religious
beliefs.
The garden around is designed with modern
flowing curvaceous lines with shrubs and low trees and gives the impression of
a modern country house garden.
The
subsequent English Garden of Ludwig von Sckell and the ruinous Temple of
Mercury near the large pond interlock with the surrounding countryside of
fields and forests. A brilliant transition from the various designs of formal
and informal traditions of the surrounding nature.
The park is always worth a visit for its special
design of spaces in different traditions, of course the parterres of flowers as
well as the forming frame hedges of beech, hornbeam and linden trees are most
impressive in summer (my visit was
on the 21st and 22nd of May 2014).
