Obelisk portal
The obelisk portal is an exit portal built in 1747 at the eastern end of the Sanssouci park in Potsdam . Opposite it at the western end is the New Palais , built between 1763 and 1769 . The approximately two kilometer long main avenue, which runs in a line in a west-east direction through the park, connects the portal in a visual axis with the guest palace of Frederick the Great . The obelisk portal was one of the first sculptural works in the gardens after the completion of the Sanssouci Palace.
Friedrich the Great commissioned Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff with the artistic design of the east exit. At the request of the king, a counterpart to the garden portal of the Rheinsberg Palace, also designed by Knobelsdorff, was created in memory of his Crown Prince's time in Rheinsberg . Friedrich Christian Glume was commissioned with the execution of the sculptural work.
The low park gate is flanked by two groups of columns, each with four Corinthian columns. A piece of entablature crowned with a vase and putti rests on each of them . Seen from the park, the groups of columns are adjoined by convex walls on which there are figures of the Roman goddess of flowers, Flora , and the goddess of fruit, Pomona . In the further course of the wall arch there are vases and stairs with nymphs at the ends . The original sandstone sculptures on the gate wall from Glume's workshop were replaced by copies around the middle of the 20th century.
obelisk
The obelisk , a few meters outside the park on Schopenhauerstrasse, indicated the boundaries of the area as early as the Frederician era and gave its name to the portal. The stone pillar was built in 1748 according to Knobelsdorff's designs and was executed by the stonemason Johann Christian Angermann . The decorative hieroglyphs come either from Johann Michael Hoppenhaupt or his younger brother Johann Christian . The Egyptian characters do not contain any text, but are the artist's free imagination, as the translation of hieroglyphs was not yet possible in the 18th century.
literature
- General management of the Foundation Palaces and Gardens Potsdam-Sanssouci (Ed.): Potsdam Palaces and Gardens. Building and gardening art from the 17th to the 20th century. Castles and Gardens Foundation and Potsdamer Verlagbuchhandlung , Potsdam 1993, ISBN 3-910196-14-4 , p. 112
Web links
Coordinates: 52 ° 24 '8.6 " N , 13 ° 2' 36.5" E