DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16633#0160
140
History of Garden Art
FIG. 463a. LUDWIGSBURG CASTLE, STUTTGART
When we read this, the fantastic ideas for "princely" fountains that Becker suggests
in his Fuerstlichen Baumeister (Architects for Princes) do not seem so preposterous. The
question is always insistently arising, as to where all these ornaments came from, for
the number of new things of the smaller sort are peculiar to Nymphenburg, and they
are actually in excess of those found in the French places we know. The separate pavilions,
to live in, correspond to similar ones at Marly-le-Roi; but here they appear for the first
time in a half-circle, surrounding the handsome court of honour, and with the town
canal in the middle. This arrangement was very popular in Germany, and at Nymphen-
burg there are several extra pavilions at the side of the canal (Fig. 456).
The small scattered houses with their separate gardens, which remind us in their
variety and number of the hermitages at Buen Retiro at Madrid, form an important feature
of the park. Their erection was due to the differing requirements of the princes, but they
divide the great park with a pleasing regularity. One cross-road through shrubberies
was laid out as a tennis-court, and near this was the garden theatre, with green side-
scenes. Max Emanuel set up a pavilion for actors and spectators to rest in and take refresh-
ment, and had it made d Uindien, giving it the name of Pagodenburg (Fig. 460). The
prince had certainly never seen the old Trianon de Porcelaine since he lived in Paris;
still its name was in everybody's mouth, and the little blue and white central building at
Nymphenburg is a direct imitation of it. In front of the Pagodenburg was a large pond
adorned with fountains, and on the opposite side was the theatre, approached by several
steps. Seats for spectators were not provided, and perhaps people sat round the pond
to see the performances. On the other side of the little house there was a narrow canal in
the park. Also there was the bath-house (Fig. 461), containing the bath itself and a number
of rooms beside a large piece of water, and on the other side a pretty parterre.
In addition to these garden pavilions there was wanted a real hermitage, which was
to unite religion and fashionable life in the Spanish-French style. The hermitage with the
chapel of St. Magdalene was first put up in 1725-8, and its neo-Gothic architecture
bears the stamp of the growing Romanticism of the period. Later on, the opposite erection,
the shooting-box called Amalienburg, was built by Charles Albert, Max Emanuel's
successor. It served as a resting-place, after the hunt, for the prince's wife, who loved the
History of Garden Art
FIG. 463a. LUDWIGSBURG CASTLE, STUTTGART
When we read this, the fantastic ideas for "princely" fountains that Becker suggests
in his Fuerstlichen Baumeister (Architects for Princes) do not seem so preposterous. The
question is always insistently arising, as to where all these ornaments came from, for
the number of new things of the smaller sort are peculiar to Nymphenburg, and they
are actually in excess of those found in the French places we know. The separate pavilions,
to live in, correspond to similar ones at Marly-le-Roi; but here they appear for the first
time in a half-circle, surrounding the handsome court of honour, and with the town
canal in the middle. This arrangement was very popular in Germany, and at Nymphen-
burg there are several extra pavilions at the side of the canal (Fig. 456).
The small scattered houses with their separate gardens, which remind us in their
variety and number of the hermitages at Buen Retiro at Madrid, form an important feature
of the park. Their erection was due to the differing requirements of the princes, but they
divide the great park with a pleasing regularity. One cross-road through shrubberies
was laid out as a tennis-court, and near this was the garden theatre, with green side-
scenes. Max Emanuel set up a pavilion for actors and spectators to rest in and take refresh-
ment, and had it made d Uindien, giving it the name of Pagodenburg (Fig. 460). The
prince had certainly never seen the old Trianon de Porcelaine since he lived in Paris;
still its name was in everybody's mouth, and the little blue and white central building at
Nymphenburg is a direct imitation of it. In front of the Pagodenburg was a large pond
adorned with fountains, and on the opposite side was the theatre, approached by several
steps. Seats for spectators were not provided, and perhaps people sat round the pond
to see the performances. On the other side of the little house there was a narrow canal in
the park. Also there was the bath-house (Fig. 461), containing the bath itself and a number
of rooms beside a large piece of water, and on the other side a pretty parterre.
In addition to these garden pavilions there was wanted a real hermitage, which was
to unite religion and fashionable life in the Spanish-French style. The hermitage with the
chapel of St. Magdalene was first put up in 1725-8, and its neo-Gothic architecture
bears the stamp of the growing Romanticism of the period. Later on, the opposite erection,
the shooting-box called Amalienburg, was built by Charles Albert, Max Emanuel's
successor. It served as a resting-place, after the hunt, for the prince's wife, who loved the