DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16633#0358
338
History of Garden Art
FIG. 613. WINTER GARDEN OF LUDWIG II. AT MUNICH
of the Moors. However, the lake which he put on the roof of the house soon proved to be
insecurely supported from below. Soon after his death, the garden perished, like so much
else of his work; and, as he had strictly excluded the public, very few people can ever
have seen it except himself and the gardeners. The gardens which he laid out round the
castles were much larger and still more fanciful. Ludwig was like Philip V. of Spain in
that he was fond of lonely valleys in the mountains. As Philip felt about San Ildefonso,
so Ludwig felt on seeing a little hunting-box at Graswangthal near Oberammergau, and he
wanted to make a Versailles in the solitude of the hills. This scheme was never carried out
at Linderhof, the place originally proposed, for the king changed his mind and selected
another, the island of Herrenchiemsee, which was still less suitable. At Linderhof, however,
he had a great terrace-garden made in the later baroque style. He had no perfectly clear
pattern before his eyes, and the place reminds one most of certain castles built by Augustus
the Strong, and in particular of Gross-Sedlitz, for in the same way the main axis passes
right across the valley, and has to ascend the slope on both sides. At Linderhof (Fig. 614),
so called from a lime-tree which was kept standing in the middle of the architectural
design, the castle stands on almost the lowest possible level. Close behind was a cascade.
On one side stood three imposing terraces in succession to a sunk parterre; they mounted
up by elliptical stairs to a temple, and each terrace carried flower-beds graduated in size.
The most successful parts of the arrangement are found in the small giardini secreti, which
are attractively laid out at the side of the house, with parterres bordered by trellis paths.
History of Garden Art
FIG. 613. WINTER GARDEN OF LUDWIG II. AT MUNICH
of the Moors. However, the lake which he put on the roof of the house soon proved to be
insecurely supported from below. Soon after his death, the garden perished, like so much
else of his work; and, as he had strictly excluded the public, very few people can ever
have seen it except himself and the gardeners. The gardens which he laid out round the
castles were much larger and still more fanciful. Ludwig was like Philip V. of Spain in
that he was fond of lonely valleys in the mountains. As Philip felt about San Ildefonso,
so Ludwig felt on seeing a little hunting-box at Graswangthal near Oberammergau, and he
wanted to make a Versailles in the solitude of the hills. This scheme was never carried out
at Linderhof, the place originally proposed, for the king changed his mind and selected
another, the island of Herrenchiemsee, which was still less suitable. At Linderhof, however,
he had a great terrace-garden made in the later baroque style. He had no perfectly clear
pattern before his eyes, and the place reminds one most of certain castles built by Augustus
the Strong, and in particular of Gross-Sedlitz, for in the same way the main axis passes
right across the valley, and has to ascend the slope on both sides. At Linderhof (Fig. 614),
so called from a lime-tree which was kept standing in the middle of the architectural
design, the castle stands on almost the lowest possible level. Close behind was a cascade.
On one side stood three imposing terraces in succession to a sunk parterre; they mounted
up by elliptical stairs to a temple, and each terrace carried flower-beds graduated in size.
The most successful parts of the arrangement are found in the small giardini secreti, which
are attractively laid out at the side of the house, with parterres bordered by trellis paths.