The Hortus Palatinus, or Garden of the Palatinate, was a Baroque garden attached to Heidelberg Castle, Germany. The garden was commissioned by Frederick V, Elector Palatine in 1614 for his new wife, Elizabeth Stuart, and became famous across Europe during the 17th century for the landscaping and horticultural techniques involved in its design. At the time it was known as the 'Eighth Wonder of the World', and has since been termed 'Germany's greatest Renaissance garden.'
The Hortus Palatinus was commissioned by Frederick V, the ruler of the Palatinate, a leading member of the Holy Roman Empire and the head of the Protestant Union, with a martial family tradition stretching back several centuries. [1] Frederick had spent the winter of 1612 in England, where he married Elizabeth Stuart, the daughter of King James I. Although the match had a political purpose – effectively uniting the Protestant lines of England, the Palatinate, the Dutch House of Orange-Nassau and Denmark – the two were genuinely in love, and remained a romantic couple throughout the course of their marriage. [2] Frederick returned to Heidelberg, his capital, ahead of his bride and set about transforming his castle, creating an 'English wing' for her, a monkey-house, a menagerie – and the beginnings of a new garden in the Italian Renaissance style popular in England at the time. [3]
Frederick had met the English designer Inigo Jones and the French engineer Salomon de Caus at King James' court. De Caus had been involved in constructing a Baroque garden for the Prince of Wales, Prince Henry at Richmond Palace, but this project had been halted following the prince's death in 1612. [4] De Caus was also a favourite of Elizabeth Stuart's, having been her tutor before her marriage. [5] From July 1614 onwards de Caus began work in Heidelberg on a new set of gardens. [6] Some writers suspect that de Caus transferred many of his potential ideas from the Richmond project to Heidelberg, applying them on a larger scale. [7]
One major challenge that the engineers faced was the uneven ground – the steep, mountainous terrain around the castle had to be flattened and levelled up into a huge multi-leveled terrace. [8] The result – a large 'L' shape around the castle – was then furnished between 1614 and 1619 with statues, grottos, plants, flowers and tall trees, surrounded in turn by the Heidelberg forest. [9] The lay-out of the various exotic plants, many from the then recently discovered tropics, reflects their geographical origins and religious connotations. [10] De Caus was also particularly proud of the orange tree grove he created, populated with thirty sixty-year-old orange trees specially transferred using his own methods, a significant horticultural accomplishment during the period. [11] Other dramatic features included a water organ in imitation of the Roman writer Vitruvius' design, [12] clockwork-driven musical automata birds who sang as nightingales and cuckoos, [13] mazes [14] and a recreation of the legendary animated statue of Memnon. [15] The result was a hugely impressive Baroque [16] garden in the Italian Renaissance style, dubbed by contemporaries the 'Eighth Wonder of the World'. [17]
The elaborate and ornate Hortus Palatinus have been interpreted in various ways. The dominant modern interpretation of the Hortus Palatinus is that is a 'magic' or 'hermetic' garden. [18] In this model, drawing on de Caus's alleged mystical Rosicrucian background, the complex gardens become an allegory of Rosicrucian thought, a 'botanical cosmos', [19] containing a coded secret deep in their design. [20] In this interpretation, the gardens are intended to capture 'a universal vision, based on a union of the arts, science and religion', combined with 'an ancient tradition of secret wisdom handed down over the ages'. [21]
Another popular modern interpretation believes that the gardens were designed consciously to communicate a powerful, symbolic political message. [22] Frederick V had political ambitions beyond the Palatinate; as the head of the Protestant Union and the senior elector within the Holy Roman Empire he had hopes for wider hegemony across Germany. [23] In 1619 Frederick would challenge Emperor Ferdinand II for control of Bohemia. Frederick's gardens accordingly symbolised a hugely powerful ruler, mimicking the Roman emperors; [24] the iconography stresses the role of Frederick as a powerful ruler driving the creation of the gardens, 'toppling the peaks of the mountains' and dominating nature as he restructures the world around him. [25] Even the water in the garden, shown in the statues to be commanded by Neptune, is in turn surmounted by images of Frederick commanding Neptune himself. [26]
An alternative interpretation of the gardens argues that – although made in the English style – de Caus designed them with the broad European late Renaissance style firmly in mind, drawing on his experiences of north Italian, and particularly Tuscan gardens. [27] In this minority interpretation, the political symbols and metaphors of the garden are of less importance than the underlying topoi of similar looking gardens across Europe – de Caus was building a garden emulating – and trying to exceed in size and scope – other popular gardens of the day. [28]
By 1619, the Hortus Palatinate had become 'Germany's greatest Renaissance garden', [29] although it was still not fully completed. 1619, however, saw Frederick V's war with Emperor Ferdinand II over the Kingdom of Bohemia; soundly defeated at the Battle of White Mountain, Frederick and Elizabeth were forced to flee the empire for a life in exile in the Hague. The Hortus Palatinate project was halted indefinitely, [30] with de Caus leaving for Paris.
Heidelberg and the gardens suffered badly during the ensuing Thirty Years War; the ornate gardens were used as an artillery base for attacking the city. [31] By the time that Frederick's son Charles Louis was returned to the lower Palatinate in 1648, the principality was in dire economic straits – pleasure gardens were a low priority for the new ruler. [32] The Hortus Palatinate became ruins and today these are considered a popular, romantic tourist attraction. [33] The gardens, as represented in de Caus' original designs, were recreated digitally at the European Media Laboratory in Heidelberg in 2003. [34]
The Electoral Palatinate or the Palatinate, officially the Electorate of the Palatinate, was a constituent state of the Holy Roman Empire. The electorate had its origins under the rulership of the Counts Palatine of Lotharingia in 915; it was then restructured under the Counts Palatine of the Rhine in 1085. From 1214 until the Electoral Palatinate was merged into the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1805, the House of Wittelsbach provided the Counts Palatine or Electors. These counts palatine of the Rhine would serve as prince-electors from "time immemorial", and were noted as such in a papal letter of 1261; they were confirmed as electors by the Golden Bull of 1356.
Baroque painting is the painting associated with the Baroque cultural movement. The movement is often identified with Absolutism, the Counter Reformation and Catholic Revival, but the existence of important Baroque art and architecture in non-absolutist and Protestant states throughout Western Europe underscores its widespread popularity.
Prince Rupert of the Rhine, Duke of Cumberland, was an English-German army officer, admiral, scientist, and colonial governor. He first rose to prominence as a Royalist cavalry commander during the English Civil War. Rupert was the third son of the German Prince Frederick V of the Palatinate and Elizabeth, eldest daughter of King James VI and I of Scotland and England.
Elizabeth Stuart was Electress of the Palatinate and briefly Queen of Bohemia as the wife of Frederick V of the Palatinate. The couple's selection for the crown by the nobles of Bohemia was part of the political and religious turmoil setting off the Thirty Years' War. Since her husband's reign in Bohemia lasted over one winter, she is called "the Winter Queen".
Frederick V was the Elector Palatine of the Rhine in the Holy Roman Empire from 1610 to 1623, and reigned as King of Bohemia from 1619 to 1620. He was forced to abdicate both roles, and the brevity of his reign in Bohemia earned him the derisive sobriquet "the Winter King".
Baroque architecture is a highly decorative and theatrical style which appeared in Italy in the early 17th century and gradually spread across Europe. It was originally introduced by the Catholic Church, particularly by the Jesuits, as a means to combat the Reformation and the Protestant church with a new architecture that inspired surprise and awe. It reached its peak in the High Baroque (1625–1675), when it was used in churches and palaces in Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Bavaria and Austria. In the Late Baroque period (1675–1750), it reached as far as Russia, the Ottoman Empire and the Spanish and Portuguese colonies in Latin America. In about 1730, an even more elaborately decorative variant called Rococo appeared and flourished in Central Europe.
Isaac de Caus (1590–1648) was a French landscaper and architect. He arrived in England in 1612 to carry on the work that his brother Salomon de Caus had left behind. His first known work in England was a grotto that Caus designed in 1623 located in the basement of Inigo Jones's Banqueting House. He is noted for his work at Wilton House and Lincoln's Inn.
Heidelberg Castle is a ruin in Germany and landmark of Heidelberg. The castle ruins are among the most important Renaissance structures north of the Alps.
Salomon de Caus was a French Huguenot engineer, once (falsely) credited with the development of the steam engine.
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Hortus conclusus is a Latin term, meaning literally "enclosed garden". Both words in hortus conclusus refer linguistically to enclosure. It describes a type of garden that was enclosed as a practical concern, a major theme in the history of gardening, where walled gardens were and are common. The garden room is a similar feature, usually less fully enclosed.
The Paladins, also called the Twelve Peers, are twelve legendary knights, the foremost members of Charlemagne's court in the 8th century. They first appear in the medieval chanson de geste cycle of the Matter of France, where they play a similar role to the Knights of the Round Table in Arthurian romance. In these romantic portrayals, the chivalric paladins represent Christianity against a Saracen (Muslim) invasion of Europe. The names of the paladins vary between sources, but there are always twelve of them led by Roland. The paladins' most influential appearance is in The Song of Roland, written between 1050 and 1115, which narrates the heroic death of Roland at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass.
Wenceslas Cobergher, sometimes called Wenzel Coebergher, was a Flemish Renaissance architect, engineer, painter, antiquarian, numismatist and economist. Faded somewhat into the background as a painter, he is chiefly remembered today as the man responsible for the draining of the Moëres on the Franco-Belgian border. He is also one of the fathers of the Flemish Baroque style of architecture in the Southern Netherlands.
Johann Ernst of Nassau-Weilburg was an Imperial Generalfeldmarschall, from 1675 to 1688 Count and from 1688 until his death Prince (Fürst) of Nassau-Weiburg.
Jacques Fouquier, Jacques Fouquières or Jacob Focquier was a Flemish landscape painter. After training in Antwerp he worked in various places where he often obtained appointments as a painter to the court including that of the French kings. He earned great success and a very high reputation during his lifetime and was even referred to as the 'Flemish Titian'. Very few of his paintings have been preserved. His work was influential in his time and was widely circulated thanks to reproductions by various contemporary engravers.
Anna of Hesse was a princess of Hesse by birth and marriage Countess Palatine of Zweibrücken.
The Baroque garden was a style of garden based upon symmetry and the principle of imposing order on nature. The style originated in the late-16th century in Italy, in the gardens of the Vatican and the Villa Borghese gardens in Rome and in the gardens of the Villa d'Este in Tivoli, and then spread to France, where it became known as the jardin à la française or French formal garden. The grandest example is found in the Gardens of Versailles designed during the 17th century by the landscape architect André Le Nôtre for Louis XIV. In the 18th century, in imitation of Versailles, very ornate Baroque gardens were built in other parts of Europe, including Germany, Austria, Spain, and in Saint-Petersburg, Russia. In the mid-18th century the style was replaced by the less geometric and more natural English landscape garden.
Anne Sutton (1589–1615) was an English lady-in-waiting who was a companion of Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia. She was the daughter of Edward Sutton, 5th Baron Dudley and Theodosia Harington. Sutton was known as "Mrs Anne Dudley" or "Mistress Dudley" although "Sutton" was the family surname. Elizabeth of Bohemia called her "Nan Duddlie".
A Renaissance garden is a garden or park created in the era and style of the Renaissance. Because the first such gardens originated in Italy, they are sometimes called Italian gardens. However, gardens made later in Germany, France, or England might have had some differences compared to the original Italian gardens.
