Schwetzinger Schlossgarten

A courtly baroque garden, well-proportioned and well-kept. Elector Karl Theodor�s summer palace stands between the garden and a graceful market town. A central axis runs from the market square through the palace, through the garden and out into the countryside. On the garden front, it passes through a great circular parterre, bounded by the red sandstone palace buildings and by trellised pergolas, all in the grandest manner. A cross axis runs through the circular parterre. The garden was designed by J L Petri in 1753. He was court gardener to the Elector of the Palatinate and followed the recommendations of the Th�orie et Pratique du Jardinage. Made in the dying days of the baroque style, Schwetzingen has a geometrical inventiveness not seen in earlier baroque gardens. There is a romantic Stag Fountain, a fine bosquet beside the Apollo Theatre, a Bath House and an aviary. After 1776, Ludwig von Sckell made the outer areas of the garden into a landscape park. It wraps round the parterre garden in a characteristically German manner, giving an outward transition from regular to irregular. Voltaire is said to written Candide during a stay at Schwetzingen (info Thacker p.166). Some garden buildings of exceptional quality were added by Nicolas de Pigage in the late 18th century: a Temple of Apollo, a Bathhouse, a large Mosque, a ruined Roman Aquaduct and a Temple of Mercury.