Mosque in the Schwetzingen palace gardens
The mosque in the Schwetzingen Palace Gardens (also known as the "Red Mosque") is a building in the garden of the Schwetzingen Palace in Baden-Württemberg , which was built by court architect Nicolas de Pigage at the end of the 18th century.
history
The first stage of the construction work was the "Jardin Turc" (French: Turkish garden) in 1776 . The construction of the mosque began in 1779 and ended in 1792/93, with the minarets not being completed until 1795/96. The cost was around 120,000 guilders . This made the mosque the most expensive building in the garden. When construction began, the court had already moved to Munich because Carl Theodor became Elector of Palatinate-Bavaria in 1778.
The building did not have the function of an Islamic house of worship, but should, following the enlightening overall concept of the Schwetzingen palace garden, express the tolerance towards all religions and cultures of the world. Islam represents the wisdom teachings associated with the Orient .
Although the building lacks some elements typical of mosques, it was actually used for Islamic services at times, for example after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71, when prisoners of war from the Maghreb (probably Turkos ) were housed in hospitals near Schwetzingen , as well as in the 1980s.
After the Second World War , Americans used the interior as a jazz and swing club.
Since 1970, the entire Schwetzingen palace complex has been reconstructed according to a park maintenance plan. Restoration work on the mosque also began in the 1990s and was completed in 2007. The state of Baden-Württemberg invested around 2.5 million euros for the external repair of the mosque, 6 million euros in the renovation of the prayer corridors and 1.5 million euros for the interior work.
architecture
The building is stylistically assigned to the so-called Turkish fashion . Although it looks similar to a mosque, it differs in some respects from a “real” mosque: This is usually provided with a closed inner courtyard, towards which the facade is also decorated, while the outside is simply worked. This is not the case in Schwetzingen. In addition, the Schwetzingen mosque has a colonnade, which would be more like the cloister of a Christian monastery, and a dome that imitates St Paul's Cathedral in London. There are also no liturgical facilities that a mosque needs. In the courtyard there is usually a fountain for ritual cleansing before prayer ( wudu ' ); the interior includes a pulpit and a niche that indicates the direction to Mecca ( qibla ). The overall impression of the dome, portico and free-standing towers is most reminiscent of the Karlskirche in Vienna .
Jan Snoek tries to see all garden buildings and parts in a broad Masonic context. With its ceilings decorated with stars, the mosque represents the night as well as the sky in the spiritual and spiritual sense and is at the same time a symbol for life after death.
Layout
The Turkish garden with the mosque forms a rectangle, the long sides of which are oriented in a north-south direction. The area is surrounded by a wall in the north, south and west. On the east side there is a path that separates the Turkish garden from the orchard. The mosque is inscribed in the western wall and its dome lies exactly on the east-west central axis of the orchard.
The floor plan of the gallery is based on this rectangle; it takes up about two thirds of the base area. In the east-west axis it is interrupted by two square portal buildings: on the east side by the entrance to the colonnade and on the west side by the entrance to the mosque. The four corners are accentuated by sloping pavilions. On the two long sides, west and east, halfway between the corner pavilions and the portal buildings, small pavilions with treble corridors are built on the outside of the corridor.
On the two narrow sides, north and south, there are also pavilions, which are attached to the walkway with a short treillage connecting corridor. These buildings, known as the priests' cabinets, are slightly larger than the pavilions on the long sides.
The mosque is connected with the western portal building by a hall-like connecting wing to the gallery. Seven steps lead to the entrance of the mosque. The area around the walkway is surrounded by bushes and small trees. Gravel paths run around the cloister on both the inside and the outside. To the right and left of the mosque are two small paths that lead to the portals below the minarets; through it you can get to the west of the mosque. At the southwest corner of the wall, hidden behind bushes, is a stone bench that can only be reached via a patch of lawn in the form of a winding path.
The ground plan of the mosque and the walkway is determined by a circle, rectangle, square and octagon. The originally square floor plan of the cube of the dome building approximates an octagon through concave corners. These corners are formed into quarter circles; The round stair towers are inscribed in the north-east corner and in the south-east corner. The floor plan of the interior, however, corresponds completely to a regular octagon.
The tambour on which the dome sits rises from this cube in a circular plan . To the north and south of this domed building are square rooms, to the west the rectangular portico and to the east the above-mentioned rectangular connecting hall. From the square extensions, a concave wall stretches to the west to the octagonal bases of the minarets, which are slightly in front. The circular minaret towers rise from these.
The square-circle-octagon idea was consistently pursued in all components.
Walkway
The walkway consists of Treillage -Gängen, interrupted by the two Portalbauten and corner pavilions. The corridors consist of beige lacquered grids, which are framed by the green lacquered load-bearing parts and are regularly interrupted by passages. These passages are covered with gables, which are adorned with a three-pass at the front. The roof cross-section has the shape of a donkey's back arch at these points . The roof over the corridors is a gable roof covered with slate. In the quarter there are bundle pillars with leaf capitals; the bases also have an octagonal floor plan. The corridors have flat ceilings, while the ceilings of the passageways are arched and thus set them off against the corridors. Both are decorated with different patterns.
The portal buildings and the corner pavilions are one and a half story high. At the level of the floor change, a ledge is drawn around each building. The portal buildings have a balcony-like structure, in the middle of which a small, round dome rises from the flat roof. On the half floor there is a round arched window opening that is reminiscent of a crescent moon.
Like the mosque, the corner pavilions have a circular tambour with round windows on which a round dome sits, which is crowned by a basket-like attachment.
The four small pavilions on the broad sides are single-storey buildings, each with a pointed arch window on the outside and a round window on the narrow sides. The buildings are covered by bell roofs.
All types of buildings just listed have ogival entrances.
The priests' cabinets are also one-story. The entrance is closed by a double-leaf wooden door. There is a small pointed arch window in each of the short sloping sides, and round windows in the side walls. The whole thing is covered by a pagoda-shaped roof into which four pointed arched skylights are let.
All buildings are kept in the same shade of red as the mosque.
The cloister or walkway was built from 1779 to 1784 as a replica of the mosque in Kew Garden in London (now destroyed). In the Orient, the Selimye Mosque (built between 1569 and 1575 by order of Sultan Selim II) in Edirne (formerly Adrianople) served as a model for the Kew Mosque. [1] The central building began in 1782 and lasted until 1786. Most recently, the two minarets 1786-1795 completed. They are an image of the two pillars of the temple of Solomon in Jerusalem and receive the ideas of the time of the Enlightenment. In 1779 Lessing wrote "Nathan the Wise". The tolerance between the three monotheistic religions can be clearly seen here. [2]
[1] Heber, Wiltrud. P. 627.
[2] Gamer, Jörg, p. 23.
facade
The design of the facade is influenced by the facade of the Karlskirche in Vienna . The west entrance of the mosque is determined by a portico . Its gable is supported by four full columns and four three-quarter columns, which are arranged in pairs to reveal the entrance. The pillars are composite; Above the Corinthian acanthus leaf wreath are the Ionic volutes , strictly separated from it . Fighters stand on the capitals who cut into the architrave and strangely interrupt it.
The ceiling of the portico is divided into three parts according to the order of the columns and decorated with decorative fields in the recesses.
A cornice rests on the architrave and spans the entire building. Above this is an attic floor that also runs around the whole building. The gable of the portico is divided into three pointed arches, with the middle one rising higher than the two on the side. It is adorned in the inner field with an Arabic inscription which translates as: "There is only one true God."
A frieze that is shaped like a Gothic tracery extends towards the building wall . The sima is decorated with teardrop-shaped guttae - an ornament that is often found at the court of Carl Theodor.
In contrast to the elaborate portico, the portal is kept rather simple. Above the double-leaf door there is a pointed bezel set with glass. There is a decorative field in the form of a stilted semicircle above the entrance. A halo of lanceolate leaves surrounds a star in the middle.
Directly on the left and right of the portico are concave corners, which are decorated with decorative fields both below and above the ledge. This is followed by the outer walls of the additions to the domed hall. In the lower area these are broken by a pointed arch window and in the upper area, but below the ledge, by a flat arched window. Above the ledge, on the attic floor, there is again a decorative field.
This is followed by the concave, outwardly drawn walls that connect the minarets with the main building. These are adorned by three pointed arch niches and on the west side by rosette-decorated tondi, which can also be found on the tambour. On the east side, towards the cloister, the walls are undecorated. A cornice runs below the edge of the wall up to the minarets, which are still enclosed by it.
The minarets have an octagonal base with decorative fields on all free-standing sides. This is followed by the cornice just mentioned, from which a vault grows that leads to the tower. Halfway between the balcony and the base, a bead-shaped decorative ribbon is tied around the tower. The doors to the balconies face west. The roof is a mixture of onion and folding dome. The tower stairs are twisted to the left - an unusual type of twist, but one that is also used in the Temple of Mercury.
The sides of the extensions each have a pointed arch door in the middle and a round arched window above. On the attic floor there is again an elongated decorative field. The east side is dominated by the rectangular entrance hall, which on this side takes the place of the portico and connects the main building with the portal of the walkway. In terms of structure, it is similar to the west facade, except that the stair towers are inscribed in the concave corners. These have a pointed arched gate and two pointed arched windows in the lower area - a division that is reflected upwards on the platform level. The towers end at the height of the attic storey and are covered with a hemispherical dome.
The cylindrical tambour rises from the cube of the main hall. In the lower part this has a smooth, narrow band as a base. Above it is a fluted band that ends with a cornice. The cornice is also the sill of the eight windows. These have an ogival shape and are covered by a triangular gable. The aforementioned tondi are located between the triangular gables. A pointed arch frieze closes the drum and forms the transition to the hemispherical dome. Like all roofs, this is covered with slate and has 16 gable windows corresponding to the drum windows, which are arranged in two rows one above the other. The end of the dome is an onion, which is crowned with a five-pointed lightning rod.
inner space
The interior of the mosque, and thus mainly the dome structure, consists of the ground floor, a gallery and the dome, the curve of which begins in the interior at the level of the drum window. As a result, the mosque has an inner dome, so to speak, on top of which an outer one. Therefore, nothing of the sixteen roof windows in the outer dome can be seen inside.
The domed hall has an octagonal floor plan on the ground floor. On the outside this is created by the concave indentation of the corners, on the inside by the arcade niches. The corners at which these meet are blocked by columns, the base of which is also octagonal. The column shafts are fluted and the capitals belong to the Ionic order. The pillars are connected to the walls at the base and at the transom. They carry arched arcades over which the tambour is created. The wall niches in between are two-story. In the main axes of the ground floor there are both the entrance doors to the domed hall and the passage doors to the two extensions. Above this there are galleries on three sides, while a painted curtain can be seen on the west side in pseudo-architecture .
The other four wall niches are lavishly decorated. In turn, inscriptions with wisdom are attached to the round arches.
The archivolt is adorned with a band of acanthus leaves , which alternate with rosettes . At the top of the head sits a shining star, above which a cartouche with the word "Allah" in Arabic characters is attached.
A projecting console cornice extends over it, from which the tambour grows. It's much shorter on the inside than on the outside. The inner dome sits below the outer one and is probably connected to it by a roof truss, into which the sixteen skylights also open. The tambour is divided into forty-eight vertical decorative fields, which taper to a point on the narrow sides and have floral decorations.
The dome rises above the drum with its eight windows that cut deeply into them with stitch caps. Between them are again arabesque decorative fields with wisdom in Arabic script, the German translation of which can be read in a rectangular, pedestal-like field below. The reveals of the stitch caps are also decorated with a diamond-shaped pattern. In the center of the dome is a golden, octagonal star on a blue background. If you stand in the middle of the room and look up into the dome, you get the impression that the stab caps of the windows point to the star in the middle. This creates the feeling that the entire interior architecture is centered on this star.
The two square side rooms are designed the same. The doors to the domed hall and to the outside into the garden are located in the north-south axis. East and west walls are divided by ogival windows. In the corners there are cubic pillars that support the shield arches. Like their counterparts in the domed hall, they are fluted; their capitals are a combination of the Doric and Ionic orders. There is a circular hole in the center of the ceiling, over which a dome arches. The star is also found here again.
Inscriptions
The Arabic wisdom that is attached to the decorative fields of the interior and the outer facade do not have a purely Islamic character, but are humanistic-monotheistic teachings borrowed from the Arab world. Outside you can find them at the entrance pavilions of the walkway and the mosque; in the interior you can find them in the drum between the windows and in the lower area in the arcade arches. With the exception of the inscriptions on the west facade, which are only in Arabic script, they are each combined with a German translation in Latin script, with the Arabic version always appearing above the German translation. There are a total of 23 inscriptions, 20 of which can be traced back to an Arabic origin.
Aside from the untranslated inscriptions on the west facade, which are clearly religious, the others are general wisdom about ethics and morality. With the Arabic characters , it is noticeable that almost all tables have errors in the punctuation of the consonants and the vocalization of the Arabic language. The artist who added the inscriptions apparently did not speak the Arabic language and probably took over the writing from the artwork. The subject areas include wisdom and folly, communicability and discretion, industriousness and idleness, as well as the pursuit of goods as well as impermanence and exhortation.
The inscriptions on the west facade are the only ones that have a clear reference to the Koran and have not been translated. Above the main portal is the first part of the Muslim creed, which reads: “There is no God but God”. On the two panels to the right of the portico are shortened forms of Koran suras, the German translations of which are: “Donate before death comes” and “Neither was he conceived, nor is anyone like him”. The upper panel on the left of the portico is a shortened prayer sequence and means in translation: “Praised be you, and yours is the praise. Your name is blessed, and apart from you there is no god. ”The lower table is again the abbreviation of a sura and reads:“ Then praise your Lord and ask his forgiveness! He is gracious! "
literature
- Carl-Ludwig Fuchs, Claus Reisinger: Schwetzingen palace and garden. Werner, Worms 2001, ISBN 3-88462-164-5 .
- Wiltrud Heber: The work of Nicolas de Pigage in the former Palatinate residences Mannheim and Schwetzingen. Werner, Worms 1986, ISBN 3-88462-909-3 , manuscripts on art history in the Wernerschen Verlagsgesellschaft 10, (also: Heidelberg, Univ., Diss., 1977).
- Gamer, Jörg Comments on the garden of the electoral Palatinate summer residence Schwetzingen in Carl Theodor and Elisabeth Auguste Höfische Art and Culture in the Electoral Palatinate Exhibition catalog for the Electoral Palatinate Museum Ed. Jörn Bahms under the patronage of Mayor Rheinhold Zundel from Heidelberg (published 1979), p. 20– 25th
Web links
- Official website for the mosque in the Schwetzingen palace gardens
- Geography online: The mosque in the Schwetzingen palace gardens
Individual evidence
- ↑ Reinhard Urschel: Temporal from Schwetzingen - mosque . In: Die Zeit , No. 41/1976.
- ↑ Kirsten Baumbusch: Temple of the Spirit shines in fresh rose - an oriental ambience in the Schwetzingen palace gardens . In: Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung , May 26, 2007.
- ↑ Jan AM Snoek: Schwetzingen: more than just a masonic garden . In: Joannes AM Snoek (Ed.): Symbolism in 18th century gardens: the influence of intellectual and esoteric currents, such as freemasonry . The Hague 2006, ISBN 90-807778-3-8 , pp. 149-187. esswe.org ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
Coordinates: 49 ° 22 ′ 52 " N , 8 ° 33 ′ 53" E