Favorite pleasure palace (Mainz)
The Favorite Pleasure Palace (often just called Favorite) on the banks of the Rhine in Mainz was an important baroque complex in the Electoral Mainz with lavish gardens and water features. The Favorite was built in several stages, starting with the year 1700. It was mainly completed around the year 1722. Its owner, Lothar Franz von Schönborn, Elector of Mainz, came from one of the most important Franconian - Middle Rhine noble families of the time and was the owner of many baroque gardens and palaces. The pleasure palace Favorite was completely destroyed during the siege of Mainz in 1793 in the coalition wars.
The model for the complex was the French pleasure palace Marly-le-Roi of Louis XIV. The pleasure palace Favorite, with its further development of formalistic, early baroque garden design in the style of Versailles, is considered a model for many other gardens that were created later in the subsequent late baroque era of garden art .
prehistory
The Favorite site is located directly on the banks of the Rhine opposite the Main estuary and south of the medieval fortress ring at the gates of Mainz. It was already used for gardens in the Middle Ages. This is where the older abbot garden and the monastery garden of the later St. Alban Abbey before Mainz were located . St. Alban was plundered and completely destroyed on the evening of August 28, 1552 in the Second Margrave War by the troops of Margrave Albrecht Alcibiades of Brandenburg-Kulmbach . In 1672, Christoph Rudolf Reichsfreiherr von Stadion acquired the monastery garden. After he was able to acquire the adjoining abbey garden in 1692, he combined both gardens. At the end of the 17th century, the stadium was a prominent figure in the electoral Mainz: He was president of the court council , cathedral provost, provost of St. Alban and himself a multiple candidate for electoral office. He too wanted to build a baroque pleasure garden in keeping with the fashion that was emerging at the time . From the merged older gardens, a five-hectare utility and pleasure garden was created in the high baroque style with a single-storey Rheinschlösschen, farm buildings, vineyards as well as fruit and ornamental trees, the so-called Stadionsche garden. After the stadium's death in 1700, the Elector of Mainz, Lothar Franz von Schönborn , who had only been elected six years earlier , acquired the property from the heirs for 16,500 Reichstaler . The 400 m long and 140 m wide garden was to become the centerpiece of the Favorite pleasure palace he planned.
Building history
When Lothar Franz von Schönborn was elected Elector of Mainz in 1694, the city of Mainz began to flourish not only in terms of urban planning. Schönborn, from an important noble family from the Middle Rhine-Franconia, corresponded to the ideal type of an absolutist ruling and splendor-loving baroque prince. At the same time, as he found out in a certain self-awareness, like many other members of the Schönborn family, he was “obsessed with the construction worm”. In his private correspondence, which has been preserved to a large extent, the following statement has been passed down: "Building is a pleasure and costs a lot of money, every fool likes his own cap." As Elector of Mainz, he planned a representative baroque pleasure garden for his royal seat. The model for the naming was the Habsburg Favorita near Vienna , a reverence of the Elector and Arch Chancellor to the ruling house of the Habsburgs, who were politically close to him . From a structural point of view, the Marly-le-Roi, built between 1680 and 1686, served as a model, which is how Schönborn liked to call his pleasure palace Favorite le petit Marly (little Marly). Due to his extensive construction activity and the large building projects that often ran in parallel in his ecclesiastical principalities, Schönborn was able to fall back on a large number of skilled builders when building the Favorite. He jokingly and respectfully called them "my clever building directing gods."
The architects and fortress builders Nikolaus Person and Maximilian von Welsch were at his disposal. They left the horticultural work to the head gardener Johann Kaspar Dietmann, whose horticultural expertise was also highly valued by the elector and used elsewhere. On artistic and design issues they worked closely with the “Hofkavalier architect” Philipp Christoph von und zu Erthal , the builder of the Erthaler Hof of the same name. A fourth architect involved was Freiherr von Rotenhan, who was also in the service of the elector as a colonel stable master. In the later construction and renovation phase (from 1725) the design of the Favorite was influenced by Anselm Franz Freiherr von Ritter zu Groenesteyn, who was referred to as a “gentleman architect ”, and - through his mediation - the Parisian court architect Germain Boffrand . For the complicated water work, Schönborn won over the well-known master builder Abraham Huber from Salzburg in 1724 , whom he respectfully and humorously called "neptunum abrahamum".
First construction phase (1700 to 1722)
After acquiring the Stadionschen Garten in 1700, Schönborn immediately began expanding the facility. Its architects initially followed the alignment of the previous facility and oriented themselves along the Rhine in the direction of Mainz. The first facility consisted of a main building, a two-wing, single-storey Rheinschlösschen. This was with its narrow side, where the main entrance was, directly on the Rhine, only separated from it by a driveway. This building was used as a concert and dining hall.
This was followed by a narrow garden with ornamental sculptures from the previous garden, the main axis of which also pointed towards Mainz. The complex, which essentially took over the shape and size of the Stadionschen Garten, existed in this form until around 1705. From around 1708 (with certainty as of 1710) the electoral fortress builder Maximilian von Welsch was permanently involved in the construction project.
The further construction work proceeded only slowly until 1714. The War of the Spanish Succession from 1701 to 1714 provided, albeit indirectly, a threat to the electoral Mainz from the French, especially since the complex was located outside the fortress belt. On the other hand, this dispute also strained the electorate's resources to a not insignificant extent, so that Lothar Franz von Schönborn had to partially postpone his most important Mainz building project. However, it is also known from existing invoices that the work on the Favorite Schönborn had already cost 93,641 guilders and 58 cruisers by 1710 . Larger purchases of plants are also reported in the first few years. The annual accounts of 1702 show 6000 hornbeams from the Spessart , yew bushes and chestnut trees. These were used for the design of the Boulingrin in the northernmost part of the garden, which is one of the oldest parts of the garden created under Schönborn.
Nevertheless, the large water terraces of the lower ground floor and the main ground floor above were completed in 1711/1712. From 1717 the actual palace complex was built at the upper end of the main parterre, seen from the banks of the Rhine. Originally planned as a central building in the complex, the palace complex has now taken on the function of a magnificent orangery. Also in 1717/1718 Welsch expanded the main ground floor with its six semicircular cavalier houses . The elector commissioned his court sculptor Franz Matthias Hiernle with the figurative design of the individual complexes . The two large gardens adjacent to the main ground floor were laid out by 1722.
Around 1722, the Favorite pleasure palace with its buildings, water features and various gardens was provisionally completed as a coherent complex. From then on, Elector Lothar Franz von Schönborn and his successors used the Favorite for representation purposes and for celebrations of the electoral court. A series of 14 copperplate engravings by Favorite (now partly owned by the Landesmuseum Mainz) by Salomon Kleiner , an electoral court engineer and gifted copper engraver , from 1723 to 1726 shows the complex with its various aspects after its completion in a detailed but also often exaggerated perspective. An anonymous contemporary report describes the impressive effect of the festive complex on the viewer:
“The rising system of the Favorite never appeared more glorious than when it was illuminated at night. When you drove on the Rhine from Kostheim at such festivals, you thought you saw a shining fairy castle in front of you, which radiated a brilliant picture in a thousand-fold flicker on the smooth surface of the water. The six pavilions rising to the height of the Albanschanze were like burning palaces. The arbors and facades appeared to be carved from diamonds; the aquatic arts hurled gleaming gemstones against the dark night sky. The groups of trees and avenues threw back a dazzling green and between all these glories the happy people crowded under wonderful music. "
Second construction phase (1722 to 1735)
During the reign of Elector Franz Ludwig von Pfalz-Neuburg (1729–1732), the Favorite was expanded for the last time. The northern part, the so-called Boulingrin with its extensive horse chestnut promenades, was redesigned. A garden house, the so-called porcelain house, was built there, facing the Rhine. Since the Porcelain Manufactory in Höchst near Frankfurt am Main also belonged to the Electorate of Mainz from 1746, the Porcelain House and other buildings belonging to Favorite were equipped with products from the Manufactory in the late period of the facility. The interior of the building itself is said to have been tiled in white and blue. The builder was Anselm Franz Freiherr von Ritter zu Groenesteyn (also: zu Gruenstein) trained in Paris. Most likely, however, Lothar Franz von Schönborn had already planned this extension and had construction started before his death in 1729.
Further extensions and renovations until 1790
After the redesign of the northern part of the Favorite, there were no more major or significant building projects. For practical reasons, further stables and farm buildings were added in the western part of the complex facing away from the Rhine, but these did not affect the artistic aspect of the complex. However, the replacement of numerous water basins and systems with purely horticultural systems was of greater importance for the external presentation of Favorite. The wells built for the Favorite's water systems were probably unable to supply the required amount of water in the long run.
In 1746 Anselm Franz Freiherr von Ritter zu Groenesteyn worked again on the orangery. The last garden design work on the Favorite was done around 1788–1790 by the well-known garden architect Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell with changes to the now expanded facility in the new " English style ". Sckell was originally commissioned to “design the surroundings of the Mainz Favorite in a natural way.” However, Sckell largely respected the old gardens. After his changes, which in fact led to two stylistically different gardens lying next to each other, he drew a summary: “... so that both of them will not dispute their merits as a result; each one will stand alone and be admired without doing the other. ”The work on the gardens of Favorite did not get beyond an early stage. However, Sckell's plans for the redesign influenced the planning of the new facility in the 20s of the 19th century.
More far-reaching plans after 1790, such as the expansion of the Rheinschlösschen or the expansion of the Favorite after the purchase of the site of the neighboring Charterhouse (a 70 m long garden hall was planned), were started, but no longer finished due to the political situation.
Design of the facility
Parks
In the gardens of the Favorite pleasure palace, many of the garden architecture design elements used at the time were found again. The previous garden was designed at the end of the 17th century in the formal style of a French baroque garden that was predominant at the time. The broderie parterre in front of the Rheinschlösschen, divided by a deep water basin, probably comes from the previous garden of Favorite. The parterre de broderie imitated an embroidery ( French broderie ) with the use of box as a design plant and different colored gravel and stone materials . Their longitudinal alignment towards the building still showed the planning of the visual axes of the previous garden. Arcades between the cavalier pavilions and the orangery rounded off the plant design in the upper area of the building.
In the middle area there were artfully shaped hedge walls that divided the park elements. Again separated by a water basin on the Rhine side, two Boulingrins were arranged in the lower ground floor area. Upstairs, facing away from the Rhine, there were two bosquets with cabinets (dense, cut-shaped hedges or woods with empty spaces) that framed a lawn parterre with potted trees.
The third and northernmost gardens were closest to the city of Mainz. Smaller fountains and numerous carpet beds loosened up the entire third part of the garden. There horse chestnuts were primarily used as design elements, a new type of plant discovery at the time, which was called "chestnuts" and was often used. Large bosquets made of horse chestnut trees and hedges made of hornbeam surrounded a deep boulingrin with a water basin, a so-called salle de verdure . The main entrance to the facility was also located there. Well-tended grass paths, referred to by Kleiner as “communications stairs”, led up to further bosque rooms and then to one of the most striking park elements in the entire complex, the “Great Promenade”. This consisted of a horse chestnut avenue, which was modeled on the Salle aux Marronniers laid out by Louis XIV in Versailles . It represented an elongated colonnade running parallel to the Rhine at the height of the Favorite. Elaborate figure decorations and fountain bowls, as well as smaller hornbeam bosquets with small intimate cabinets, completed the large promenade.
Water features and grottos
In the three parallel gardens, water features and pools as well as themed grottos were evenly distributed. Schönborn seems to have attached great importance to the water features, which were used in large numbers as a design element. For their operation, there were extensive well bores and systems on Hechtsheimer Berg.
In the southern garden area there was a large, deepened water basin with various water features and fountains on the lower broderie floor. This was followed by the so-called Thetis Grotto at the transition to the main ground floor. Behind a basin with particularly high fountains, a semicircular grotto was built into a retaining wall, the main part of which was a statue of Thetis , who was pulled by dolphins while sitting on a shell. Two atlases flanked the group of figures.
On the main ground floor of the first complex, flanked by the six pavilions, there was again a three-level water basin with richly decorated figures, fountains and cascading water features. According to Kleiner, this complex, known as the “large and water-rich Cascade”, represented an allegory of “both rivers, the Rhine and Mayn”. Behind it, separated by a narrow forecourt, rose the orangery as the final element of the design. In this first section of the system, the Rhine deliberately formed the transverse natural closure of the main visual axis formed from the water elements.
In the central garden, which was considered the most magnificent of the entire Favorite, water features and grottos were arranged as a central axis over the entire length. At the end of the garden near the Rhine, the “perspective elevation of different cascades and fountains” began with a grotto facing away from the Rhine, equipped with a variety of figurines and waterfalls. The grotto could be seen from the upper terraces as the end of the visual axis formed by the water features. This was followed by a large water basin, which was fed by the so-called Neptune Cascade - one step further up the terrace. This corresponded to a ring cascade - again further above. In the middle ground floor of this facility there was again a water basin with a fountain, further uphill, cascading waterfalls followed again over steps. The splendid conclusion of the central garden was formed by the semicircular fountain of Pluto and Proserpina with the so-called Proserpina grotto, often also referred to as chateau d'eau (castle of water). The group of figures stood in an antique niche with backed gables on an island-like pedestal in the water basin , flanked by stairs leading to water on both sides.
In the northernmost and last garden, the water features have been reduced in favor of the plant-based design elements. A hedge on the Rhine closed off a boulingrin at the lower end. There was a deepened square lined with horse chestnuts with a water basin as a central design element. Water features were also used again on the large promenade at the upper end, made up of cross horse chestnut avenues.
Figure decorations
There was already an extensive program of figures and sculptures in the stadium garden. The following items are listed on the meticulously kept inventory list that has been preserved when the garden was handed over to Schönborn:
“14 stone urns, 34 small statues, of which the Frölicher in Frankfurt was paid one piece in the other 16 thalers, 15 large statues, one in the other 100 florins , but cost more than 4 of them, where the Frölicher from the piece Had 120 thalers; the Neptunus with 3 sea horses; the 4 columns at the Weyher and the portal from the Grotten cost 700 Thaler without the stones ... "
The “Frölicher” mentioned was the Swiss architect and sculptor Johann Wolfgang Fröhlicher , who came from Frankfurt in 1692 (where he created the high altar of St. Catherine's Church between 1680 and 1686 ), worked for Stadion. The figure group of the Neptune cascade used in the Favorite with the large central figure of the sea god Neptune amidst three seahorses is ascribed to him. The preserved statue of a river god mentioned below is referred to in older literature as the river god "Rhenus" (Rhine) and also comes from Fröhlicher, who must have created it before 1700.
However, Franz Matthias Hiernle played a much larger role in the figurative design of the Favorite. Originally from Landshut in Bavaria, he had been in the service of the elector since 1705 and held the court office of court sculptor. The statues of Bacchus , Faunus , Jupiter , Juno , Ceres and Flora as well as all nymphs and genii from Greco-Roman mythology are ascribed to him. A particularly elaborate work by Hiernle was the group of figures from the Pluto's robbery of Proserpine themed fountain , which crowned the central garden. As with all large water systems, Hiernle also worked here according to Welsch's drafts and implemented them artistically in accordance with the structural specifications. Hiernle's sons, Sebastian and Kaspar Hiernle, probably also worked as sculptors in the creation of the figures for Favorite. Also associated with the Favorite as sculptors are the electoral sculptor Burkhard Zamels , Paul Curé , who was famous as the “master of garden sculpture” in his day, and Paul von Strudel . The latter two were also in the service of Schönborn.
building
The Rheinschlösschen
The Favorite building that was erected first was a Rheinschlösschen, which already existed in the Stadionschen Lustgarten, directly on the banks of the Rhine. Schönborn continued to use this, but had it later (probably after 1705) extensively redesigned. Another floor was also added. The architect and builder of this renovation was very likely the Bamberg court builder Johann Leonhard Dientzenhofer , on whose services Schönborn could also fall back as prince-bishop of the Bamberg diocese .
Due to its right-angled construction, the building had a Rhine front with a large entrance gate and a garden front with an outside staircase. The garden front, as the final part of the longitudinal axis of the first garden, was richly decorated. Numerous figures, some of them larger than life, adorned the staircase and entrance portal. The front of the stairs showed the Schönborn coat of arms, flanked by musical emblems. Two dancing female figures, a recurring motif on other buildings in the facility, crowned the front podium. There were protruding risalits at the corners of both building fronts . A smaller wing adjoined it on the west side. In the plan from 1779 there is a simple chapel and obviously living rooms.
Designs by the Italian Giovanni Francesco Marchini were used for the facade decoration in the form of painted mock architecture in fresco technique, which was added late (around 1721) . Marchini, from Como in Italy, lived in Favorite at the time and later became a citizen of Mainz on June 16, 1727. The central and largest interior of the building was a splendid, richly stuccoed garden room or gallery, also adorned with painted mock architecture by Marchini in the style of the early Baroque. This is probably why the castle was already referred to as a “garden building” in Kleiner's engravings in 1726. The wall surfaces of the garden hall were divided by painted columns. Only one side of the garden hall had windows, the opposite side was painted with false windows by the artists Marchini, Luca Antonio Colomba and possibly also Johann Rudolf Byss . All walls had a rich sham embossing , that is, wall elements were apparently highlighted by visual effects of the painting. The previously painted fresco ceiling had a dome in the middle of the hall and was designed by Melchior Seidl. The central motif was the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus as one of the seven wonders of the world. The representation of the other wonders of the world followed on right and left. Another motif for garden buildings popular at the time seems to have been Diana's toilet in Kleiner's engravings . There were heavy chandeliers on the gallery ceiling for lighting.
The orangery
The orangery , built by Maximilian von Welsch from 1717, was the central building of the complex. The main building, originally planned as a small but splendid pleasure palace like the French model, was never built in this form, but converted into an orangery with a ballroom. It can be assumed that the orangery housed the Elector's collection of exotic potted plants , especially citrus plants , in accordance with the customary use in the Baroque period . These are likely to have given the ballroom an exotic and representative ambience. The forecourt of the orangery in front of the upper water cascade, the so-called orangery parterre, was used to set up the potted plants outdoors in summer. When Schönborn took over the facility in 1700, some of these orangery plants were listed in the inventory list:
"119 Bummerantzenbäume ( bitter orange ), 24 pomegranates ( pomegranate ), 21 laurel ( Laurus nobilis ), 2 trees Lentiscus ( mastic ), 8 Jucca gloriosa ( yucca ), 1 Stock Flospassionis ( passion flower ) ..."
The Orangerie was a two-storey building with basement , mezzanine floor , mezzanine and Mansardwalmdach , had the round window. The facade was richly painted with mock architecture. Although it was also the central focal point of one of the most elaborately designed visual axes of the entire complex, the building does not stand out structurally from the six tiered pavilions surrounding it in the contemporary views. The reasons for the comparatively modest design of the central building are not known. Schönborn was instructed about all the details during the construction phases of the orangery, for example with the installation of the water features. In a letter from the Provost Johann Philipp Franz to Schönborn on August 27, 1718, the latter reported to his electoral lord: “Otherwise E. chfl. Gn. I do not restrained that when visiting the new orangery in the Favorite the main door appeared to me too small, I can assure you that hardly my largest trees could be brought without damaging the cron ... "
The orangery stood at the western end on the upper main ground floor and above the two-tier large water system, the upper part of which is called "Prospect of the large and water-rich Cascade, both rivers, the Rhine and Mayn". Among them was the so-called Thetis Grotto.
The cavalier houses (pavilions)
In 1717/1718 Welsch built six semicircular and terraced pavilions, the so-called cavaliers houses, on the main ground floor . With this design element, the builder strictly adhered to the Elector's favorite role model, Marly-le-Roi. Apparently the elector attached more importance to the artistic ensemble of the park than to the luxury of the buildings. After completion, he had one of the gentlemen's houses converted into a bedchamber and reported about it to his nephew, the Imperial Vice Chancellor Friedrich Carl von Schönborn in Vienna . Otherwise, the buildings were used to accommodate guests. The six pavilions were made of wood and not stone and each had four rooms. As in the example of Marly, the orangery and the Rheinschlösschen of the Favorite, the facades were painted with a pseudo-architecture.
The porcelain house
The so-called porcelain house was the last major new building in Favorite, and at the same time the first of the renovation measures that followed over the next few decades. The construction most likely began in the time of Schönborn, whose coat of arms adorned the water basin in front of the building. The completion of the porcelain house fell during the short reign of Prince Elector Franz Ludwig von Pfalz-Neuburg, who succeeded Schönborn.
Anselm Franz Freiherr von Ritter zu Groenesteyn was responsible for the planning and execution. He succeeded Welsch as a leading architect and in 1730 was appointed chief building director. Groenesteyn, who had attended the Paris School of Architects, replaced the Italian-Austrian and Main Franconian-Middle Rhine baroque style that was dominant from the time of Welsch in high baroque Mainz with the French-influenced classical style . One of the first structures in this new style was the porcelain house.
The porcelain house was again based on the Marly model, this time on the Trianon de Porcelaine de Marly . It was in the third and northernmost part of the garden, at the transition from the lower, near the Rhine, to the upper avenue ground floor. The rectangular building with a convex roof zone on the front sides was attached to extensions on an oval floor plan with a hipped roof . A lantern with a half-convex, half-concave curved mansard hipped roof crowned the center of the roof area. Three French windows each opened to the Rhine and to the large Rosskastanienallee, separated from each other by pilasters arranged in pairs . The middle door was emphasized by a tympanum . A double flight of stairs with wrought-iron grating or column balusters (surviving plans show both variants), which surrounded an oval figure-decorated water basin with water features , led to a terrace . Putti and vases adorned the cornice over the French doors and the lantern. Inside, a rectangular hall dominated along the longitudinal axis with a central water basin. The interior of the building may have been decorated with decorative porcelain paneling and porcelain figures. Details of the interior have not been preserved.
Farm buildings
Naturally, these were more likely to have been more functional and did not belong to the representative part of the complex. Stables and barns for eight horses and twenty head of cattle are mentioned in the inventory list of the Stadionschen Garten. The buildings for the service personnel were also in the upper part of the garden. In Kleiner's plan from 1726 no farm buildings such as stables, tool sheds, greenhouses, growing areas, servants' houses, etc. are shown, probably for artistic reasons. However, these buildings are listed in an engraving by Le Rouge from 1779. They were behind the orangery and took up a relatively large room.
The Favorite and the Politics: The Prince's Day in July 1792
On July 14, 1792 in place Frankfurt , the coronation of Emperor Franz Joseph Karl von Habsburg , Archduke of Austria as Francis II. Place. The new Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation traveled to Mainz shortly after his coronation. From July 19 to 21, 1792, a splendid Prince's Day was held there in the Favorite Palace, which included the main political actors Franz II and King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia, numerous other German princes and diplomats. The host was the Elector of Mainz, Friedrich Karl Joseph von Erthal .
From a political point of view, contemporary history was written at this Princely Day, which was about the agreement of the further course of action of the princes present against revolutionary France. The Duke Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand von Braunschweig , who was also present , had prepared a counter-revolutionary manifesto for the occasion , which was printed in the electoral printing house in Mainz. This manifesto called for the restoration of the old (monarchical) order in France, otherwise direct military measures were threatened. As it turned out, the Fürstentag in the Favorite zu Mainz actually led directly to the first coalition war and ultimately to the downfall of the Electorate of Mainz.
The three-day Fürstentag was the last and most splendid production that took place in the electoral pleasure palace Favorite. Before that, the elector gave immigrants from the French nobility, including the Count of Artois (who later became Charles X of France) and Prince Condé , parties and court balls. For the Prince's Day, however, the host, corresponding to the high-ranking guests, made a much higher effort. The Favorite and ships cruising on the Rhine were illuminated and fireworks were set off. While Franz II stayed in the Electoral Palace, Friedrich Wilhelm II and his entourage were accommodated in the Favorite buildings. The guests present were entertained at a festive table in the open air. There are various eyewitness reports from the Fürstentag 1792, including by Georg Forster , natural scientist and electoral chief librarian at the University of Mainz . Two contributions describe this event more precisely: the corresponding passage from the memoirs of the Weimar library servant Christoph Sachse from 1822 and the letter from an anonymous contemporary witness of the festivities.
Anonymous report on the Fürstentag, letter dated August 8, 1792:
“My dear Mr. Oberamtskeller! I will briefly tell you the story of our celebrations: They began praeter propter like the Corpus Christi procession, with a large gathering of fools, clever people, women, girls and a large number of those who have something in common with the deployment of the military , the whole citizenry and the school youth in white shepherd's clothes. In this position 300 cannons and the multi-tongued bells of the entire clergy awaited the most happy arrival of the emperors. Majesties to show their most humble devotion wholeheartedly [...] "
“The second [day] we had nothing to see but the court ball, at which the Empress danced a lot. As a rule, illumination should be the favorite on this day; but the bad weather of the previous day had caused so much disaster that it could not be restored in one day in integrum. This and the expensive accommodation is also the cause of the dissatisfaction of so many strangers: who alone can take care of the weather and for a short bag? "
“The third day, finally, the expected illumination ahead of you; however, the whole plan did not quite work out as one would wish, because of a too strong west wind. In addition to Favorite, which was covered by its location and looked truly paradisiacal, the church towers of Hochheim and the dean , that of Kostheim and Kastel and the bridge over the Rhine were also wanted; but despite all the effort it was impossible to bring about, so the whole thing suffered a great shock. The spectators compensated for nine yachts, which slowly swam down from Weisenau and which were all illuminated with an infinite number of lights in half-pint glasses, so that the wind could not harm them; on the yachts Turkish music and small cannons, which alternated incessantly with other fields that were placed on the top of the Main. Through the gaps between the yachts, 20 illumined boats always had to cross back and forth, which gave the whole thing a lot of life. "
“You can guess from this incomplete description that it was worth seeing; 'Cause you know I don't flatter This lasted until late at night [...] "
Georg Forster in: Representation of the revolution in Mainz , 1793 in Paris:
“After the coronation of the emperor, Franz II, our Mainz was the meeting place for everything that is partly important in Germany, partly considered important, of crowned heads, princes, ministers, envoys and a large number of nobility. Ten thousand strangers were counted within our walls. All the inns were occupied by princes who had no more room in the electoral palaces, and all the private houses accommodated guests or friends from some distant corner of Germany ... From early morning the streets were teeming with well-dressed people, and by noon the feeling was that Carriages rustling enough to compete for a capital city [...] "
“At court, festivals, feasts, concerts, balls, illuminations, fireworks, glorified by the inimitable magic of our area and the majestic splendor of the Rhine, followed one another for several days in uninterrupted sequence ... Above all, the illuminations won the applause of connoisseurs. The gardens of Favorite, the ship bridge, the yachts on the river, the church towers of Kostheim, Kastel and Hochheim in the distance conjured up an artificial day in the dark of night and afforded a sight that is never so beautiful in London or Paris had seen. In the immense mirror of the Rhine, the burning towers and the fires rising from the bank into the air doubled ... [...] "
The destruction
Almost exactly one year after the Prince's Day in July 1792, the Favorite pleasure palace - orangery and pavilions, the borders with their richly decorated figures, the fountains, the summer house and the horse chestnut avenues - were completely destroyed. Ironically, this Princely Day was the cause of the Favorite's destruction. The approach of the coalition troops, to which the last Elector of Mainz, Friedrich Karl Joseph von Erthal, belonged, which was agreed in Mainz between Emperor Franz II and King Friedrich Wilhelm II , led to the First Coalition War . After the advance of the Prussian and Austrian troops under the leadership of the Duke of Braunschweig , the Valmy cannonade took place on September 20, 1792 . This ended with a defeat for the coalition forces. The French revolutionary army counterattacked, invaded the Palatinate under General Custine at the end of September and occupied Mainz on October 21, 1792.
In mid-April 1793, the now French city and fortress of Mainz was included in the counter-attack by the Prussian and Austrian coalition troops. The war-related leveling of the area in front of the fortress walls led to the first destruction of the Favorite; among other things, the wooden cavalier pavilions were torn down and trees felled. After failed handover negotiations, the bombardment of the besieged city began on the night of June 17, 1793, which the eyewitness Johann Wolfgang von Goethe recorded in his work The Siege of Mainz . During the almost four weeks of the bombing, the entire facility, which was located directly in the front line, was completely destroyed. But not only the Favorite, but also the Mainzer Liebfrauen and Jesuit Church, the Dompropstei and many town houses and aristocratic palaces were lost forever. As early as June 25, 1793, the Elector of Mainz, Friedrich Karl Joseph von Erthal, wrote in a letter:
"The favorite is détruite pour jamais, mes meubles dans les maisons, voitures, carosses, beaucoup de linge, tout est au diable. Ma bibliothèque est transportée, volée, pillée. »
“The Favorite has been destroyed forever, my furniture in the houses, vehicles, carriages, lots of laundry, everything is the devil. My library was taken away, stolen, looted. "
After taking Mainz on July 23, 1793, Goethe visited the destroyed Favorite and wrote about his impressions:
“During our subsequent hike back and forth, we could hardly distinguish the place where the Favorite stood. In August of last year there was a splendid garden room here; The terraces, the orangery and the spring lifts made this pleasure place located directly on the Rhine extremely enjoyable. Here the avenues are green, in which, as the gardener told me, his most gracious elector entertains the highest heads with all entourage at unmistakable tables; and what the good old man can't tell about broken place settings, silverware and dishes. Linked to that memory, the present only made an unbearable impression. "
According to the favorite: "Wüstenei", execution site and the "new facility"
The grounds of the Favorite pleasure palace were devastated for the next 26 years. After the Peace of Campo Formio in 1797 Mainz-Mayence belonged again to France. Building material, which could be reused by the devastated Favorite, was used for the fortification in Kastel operated by the French . In 1797, a local historian described the area as a "desert", and there was "a picture of terrible devastation". In 1798 the French administration celebrated a "Festival of Agriculture" on the site of the destroyed Favorite; a place that was almost certainly chosen politically and ideologically motivated. This festival was part of the various "national festivals" that were celebrated in the French Mayence of the post-revolutionary period. In addition, the area was used by the French judiciary as a place of execution. The most prominent delinquent in 1803 was Johannes Bückler alias Schinderhannes, who was guillotined there with his gang members on the grounds of the former Favorite .
Only after the end of French rule in 1814 and the annexation of Mainz to the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt on June 30, 1816, more attention was paid to the site of the former electoral favorite. In 1816 it was handed over to the city of Mainz with the condition that a " Volksgarten " be set up there. The Mainz landscape architect Peter Wolf, who trained in Versailles, designed a so-called new facility for the site in the style of an English landscape park . This was built between 1820 and 1825. From the middle of the 19th century, however, the complex became overgrown. The Siesmayer brothers , well-known Frankfurt garden architects, were therefore commissioned with the redesign in 1888. Today's city park essentially bears her creative signature.
Remains visible today
Only two statues have survived from the entire complex of the Favorite pleasure palace. The well-preserved red sandstone figure of Hercules was found in 1861 during construction work on the Hessian Ludwig Railway and was installed by the Siesmayer brothers in what would later become the city park. There is also the torso of a river god ( Rhenus? ), Which was found under the same circumstances and was perhaps a figurative part of the large water cascade in front of the orangery.
During excavation work at the winter harbor at the end of 2009 , remnants of the enclosure and retaining wall of the Rheinschlösschen and of the pebble-paved promenade that ran along the Rhine were discovered.
Linguistic echoes of the former pleasure palace are the street name An der Favorite and a hotel of the same name in the city park. At the northern entrance of the city park, which is close to the city, a large-format notice board for the city of Mainz indicates the former facility.
Summer palace or baroque garden?
In the literature, the term pleasure palace Favorite is usually used to describe the entire complex. Pleasure palaces emerged from the medieval court and were intended to serve the Baroque and Rococo princes as intimate and luxurious retreats away from the lavish court ceremonies. An important feature of the pleasure palaces was the garden park surrounding the palace.
If one compares the weighting of buildings and parks in the layout of the Favorite pleasure palace, one notices the comparatively modest size and design of the building in contrast to the splendid garden design. The small Rheinschlösschen essentially already existed before the construction of the Favorite began, the central building planned as the actual Lustschlösschen was rededicated into an orangery, which is unlikely to have met the actual construction objective. The building decoration by means of pseudo architecture and fresco painting is also in contrast to Schönborn's understanding of building. This discrepancy was also noticed again and again by visitors to the Favorite, who, like the English traveler Blainville in 1705, spoke of rather “mediocre buildings”, but highly praised the gardens. Therefore, given the missing or rather inadequate buildings, one should actually speak of a Baroque garden Favorite, the buildings of which were more subordinate and less important.
However, two facts speak in favor of maintaining the classification of the complex as a pleasure palace with the focus on the surrounding gardens:
During his time as Elector, Lothar Franz von Schönborn was able to fall back on the Electoral Palace as the main residence and as a representative location for court ceremonies and state affairs. This was a building in the style of the German Renaissance , which had been repeatedly built since 1627 and which was not completely finished even in Schönborn's time. It is known that Schönborn rejected the Electoral Palace as too old-fashioned for his sense of art, but he must have used it in any case. Thus, the Favorite pleasure palace at the gates of the city took on the classic role of an intimate retreat and summer residence with a clear focus on the gardens and water features.
According to Hennebo and Hoffmann, the position of the dominant main building in the High Baroque complex is highly inconsistent, especially in Germany. Among other things, the subordination of the main building in the overall plan, the delegation of certain functions to orangery, festival or garden buildings are mentioned; something that was also to be found in exactly this form with the Favorite. In the Ansbach Residence, too , an orangery (there, however, expanded to look like a castle) took over the function of the central building. A “replacement” of complex building dimensions with more delicate hedge bosquets due to limited space is also mentioned and can be found in Mainz, for example, in the Great Garden in Hanover-Herrenhausen or in the Belvedere Garden in Vienna.
Classification of favorites in contemporary garden architecture
In addition to its role model Marly-le-Roi, the Favorite pleasure palace is the first and trend-setting example of the transition from the formal, French-influenced Baroque garden to relaxed design structures with individual gardens laid out in parallel. This development of garden architecture found its further development and perfection in the Sanssouci of Frederick the Great . Thus the Favorite, which had taken up the impulses of the new garden design coming from France, Vienna and Italy and animated it with German design elements of the Baroque, was a model for other, later classified Baroque and Rococo gardens.
Although the planning of the pleasure palace and its facilities were based on the French model, the Favorite had a number of special features, some of which shaped future design fashions in garden architecture. The division of the entire complex into three parallel gardens facing the Rhine was almost revolutionary in garden architecture at the time. Each of the systems had a different design focus, which nevertheless harmonized with the overall system. Hennebo and Hoffmann consequently speak of an "... increasingly stronger tendency to dissolve the compelling, uniform axis structure of the baroque garden, after breaking through its subordination and unity ...".
The line of sight, partly parallel to the Rhine, partly pointing to the Rhine, was new at the time. Marie Luise Gothein calls this a threefold development of axes and describes the Favorite as the most important of the numerous gardens of Lothar Franz von Schönborn.
The integration of the rivers Rhine and Main (and thus the surrounding nature) into the overall design concept was also exceptional. Schönborn's preference for elaborate water features has already been reported above. His architects therefore designed the first and second gardens in such a way that the lines of sight, led by cascading fountains, pointed towards the Rhine and the mouth of the Main directly opposite. The Rhine thus had the function of a closing natural water channel directly at the lower end of the parterre, while the Main meant a continuation, albeit an indirect, of the axis formed by the watercourses in the system.
The successful staging of the Favorite pleasure palace in combination with the surrounding natural landscape, especially with the two rivers and the typical vineyards on the slopes, was appreciated by many well-known visitors. B. also by the poets Goethe and Schiller. Here you can already see the first signs of the romance of the Rhine that emerged at the end of the 18th and early 19th centuries , which can be detected for the first time in descriptions of the Favorite. As early as 1785 Hirschfeld wrote in his theory of garden art : “The wonderful location of the Favorite near Mayntz still has a reputation for this once so famous garden. Almost under the windows of the castle the Mayn connects with the Rhine, and both stream into the face of the garden, behind which graceful vineyards rise. "
literature
- Hedwig Brüchert (Ed.): From the electoral baroque garden to the city park. The Mainz favorite through the ages. Förderverein Stadthistorisches Museum Mainz eV, Mainz 2009. ISSN 1868-3177
- Rudolf Busch: The Kurmainzer pleasure palace Favorite. Reprint: Rheinisches Kulturinstitut, 1951. From: Mainzer Zeitschrift, 44/45, 1949/50.
- Eduard Coudenhove-Erthal: The art at the court of the last Elector of Mainz: Friedrich Carl Joseph Freiherr v. Erthal, 1774-1802 . In: Wiener Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte, Volume 10. Rohrer, Baden bei Wien, 1935, pp. 57–86
- Paul-Georg Custodis (arrangement): The Electoral Mainz pleasure palace Favorite: Special exhibition City History Museum Mainz, August 1 to September 12, 2004 , Mainz, 2004
- Franz Dumont, Ferdinand Scherf, Friedrich Schütz (Hrsg.): Mainz - The history of the city. von Zabern, Mainz 1999 (2nd edition). ISBN 3-8053-2000-0
- Marie Luise Gothein: History of garden art, second volume: From the Renaissance in France to the present . Publishing house Eugen Diederichs, Jena 1926; Reprint Verlag Georg Olms Hildesheim 1988. ISBN 3-487-09091-0
- Uta Hasekamp: The castles and gardens of Lothar Franz von Schönborn: the engraving after Salomon Kleiner (Green Row, 24). Wernersche Verlagsanstalt, Worms 2005. ISBN 3-88462-192-0
- Ulrich Hellmann: The court garden in Mainz and the gardeners at the electoral court. Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft, Mainz 2017, ISBN 978-3-88462-378-7
- Dieter Hennebo, Alfred Hoffmann: History of German garden art, Volume II: The architectural garden - Renaissance and Baroque . Broschek Verlag, Hamburg 1965
- Karl Lohmeyer: Southwest German gardens of the Baroque and Romanticism in their domestic and foreign models: Based on the working material of the Saarland and Palatinate court gardeners, the Koellner family . Saarbrücken Treatises on Southwest German Art and Culture, Volume 1. Saarbrücken: Buchgewerbehaus Aktiengesellschaft, 1937.
- Norbert Schindler: The Mainz favorite and the new facility. In: The Garden Department. 9/1962. Pp. 240-245
- Werner Wentzel: The gardens of Lothar Franz von Schönborn, 1655-1729. Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin 1970. ISBN 3-7861-4033-2
- Heinrich Wohte (Ed.): Mainz - A home book . Publisher Johann Falk III. Sons, Mainz 1928
Web links
- regionalgeschichte.net - The Favorite in Mainz
- Mainz Fortress - The Electoral Mainz pleasure palace Favorite
References and comments
- ^ Dieter Hennebo , Alfred Hoffmann: History of German garden art, Volume II: The architectural garden - Renaissance and Baroque . P. 262
- ↑ The elector's extensive private correspondence is now in the Würzburg State Archives as a correspondence archive
- ↑ Wolfgang Adam, Siegrid Westphal (ed.): Handbook of cultural centers of the early modern period: Cities and Residences in the old German-speaking area (2012), page 1429
- ↑ Bernd Blisch : From courtly pleasure to civil relaxation. On the history of the Favorite and the city park in Mainz. In: Hedwig Brüchert (Ed.): From the electoral baroque garden to the city park. The Mainz favorite through the ages. P. 64 ff.
- ^ Anonymous, after Küster: Mainzer Gartenkunst - Die Westmark , No. 6, Mainz 1921; quoted in Norbert Schindler: The favorite in Mainz and the new facility.
- ↑ Heinrich Wohte (ed.): Mainz - A Heimatbuch . Volume II, p. 182
- ↑ a b Georg Peter Karn: The Mainz Favorite of Lothar Franz von Schönborn. In: Hedwig Brüchert (Ed.): From the electoral baroque garden to the city park. The Mainz favorite through the ages. P. 17
- ↑ after Wilhelm Velke : The former Favorite near Mainz. In: Rheinische Chronik in Wort und Bild, Mainz 1894/1895 Issue 1 to 3, quoted in Rudolf Busch: The Kurmainzer Lustschloss Favorite.
- ↑ In the literature (e.g. Busch: The Kurmainzer Lustschloss Favorite) there are also references to a single-storey building with a basement . Contemporary views of the Rhine front rather suggest a two-story building, Kleiner's rendering of the garden front of the “garden building”, however, suggests a single-story building with a high basement.
- ^ Wolfgang Balzer: Mainz: Personalities of City History ; Volume 3, p. 180, chapter: Anselm Franz von Ritter zu Groenesteyn
- ↑ Mainz Almanach (1961). Contribution by Helmut Pressler: A German Gil Blas in the Mainz Favorite . Pp. 112-114 and contribution by Carl Strigler, pp. 162-166.
- ↑ quoted from: Heinz Biehn: Mainz. The old Aurea Moguntia .
- ↑ quoted from: Franz Dumont, Ferdinand Scherf, Friedrich Schütz (ed.): Mainz - The history of the city . Contribution by Helmut Mathy: The Residence in Baroque and Enlightenment (1648–1792) , p. 313
- ↑ Allgemeine Zeitung Mainz ( Memento from November 29, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) - message from November 26, 2009
- ↑ Dieter Hennebo, Alfred Hoffmann: History of German Garden Art, Volume II: The Architectural Garden - Renaissance and Baroque, p. 159
- ↑ Dieter Hennebo, Alfred Hoffmann: History of German Garden Art, Volume II: The Architectural Garden - Renaissance and Baroque, p. 262 ff.
- ^ A b Marie Luise Gothein: History of Garden Art, Volume Two: From the Renaissance in France to the Present, p. 230
- ^ After Christian Cay Lorenz Hirschfeld: Theory of garden art Leipzig 1785, quoted in Norbert Schindler: The Favorite to Mainz and the new facility.
Coordinates: 49 ° 59 ′ 22 ″ N , 8 ° 17 ′ 17 ″ E
