HILDBURGHAUSEN
Hildburghausen is a town in Thuringia (Thüringen), central Germany. In the 18th Century it was the capital of the tiny duchy of Saxe-Hildburghausen (Sachsen-Hildburghausen). Although the local duke ruled a small principality, he ordered the construction of a sizable new palace and the creation of exceptionally large formal gardens.
Today, little remains of the former splendor. The gardens disappeared in the late 18th Century.
The palace still existed in 1945, but was damaged by artillery fire and demolished after the war.
A series of engravings, published in 1720 by the famous cartographer Johann Baptist Homann (1664-1724) give an impression of what Hildburghausen looked like in the early 18th Century. Given the fact that Homann shows the palace larger (with an east wing) and more richly decorated than it actually was, he may also have drawn the gardens as they were planned at the time, but were never fully completed later.
There is no doubt however that a large baroque garden did exist at Hildburghausen. The dukes must have spent a fortune embellishing it, and it is known that they piled up debts in an excessive way. Interestingly, Homann’s engravings offer just two views of the palace, whereas the gardens are depicted in twenty drawings. Twelve of them show the fountains in detail. This seems to indicate that the gardens were the Duke’s passion, rather than the palace.
An English landscape garden today, it still has its rectangular shape, surrounded by a moat, exactly as drawn by Homann.
According to the cartographer, there were eight fountains depicting stories from Aesop’s fables in the Duke’s gardens. One might think that this was just an imitation of Versailles, where no less than thirty-nine such fountains could be found in the famous Labyrinth. At Hildburghausen however, although there was a large maze, it was quite different from the one at Versailles and furthermore these fountains were placed elsewhere in separate hedge cabinets. The general lay-out of the gardens was actually reminiscent of 17th Century garden architecture in Holland.
The 3D virtual reconstruction is based on the drawings by Homann, except for the palace which is shown as it actually existed until 1945. My work is far from perfect, as I couldn’t find plans of the palace and only a few photographs. As for the gardens, I didn’t use the best copy of Homann’s engravings. Also, the drawings do not show the exact appearance of the orangery and the size of the cascade.
The virtual model includes the old town of Hildburghausen, only for reference, without showing any details.
I used English titles in my video, but it may be useful to mention some of the original German descriptions by J. B. Homann: Lusthaus mit 8 Alleen (Summer House); Das Rad von Aventure (Pleasure Wheel); Schneckenberg (Spiral Hill); Irrgarten mit einem Lusthaus (The Maze); Machine zum Ringel-rennen (Tournament Court); Thiergarten (Animal Park); Das grosse Bindwerck gegen der Cascade (Trellis Work facing Cascade).
© Mark Pieters 3D 2023
GAIBACH BAROQUE GARDENS - Virtual reconstruction
Gaibach, some 24 km. northeast of Würzburg, Bavaria, used to be famous for its baroque gardens.
Perhaps, not so long after the devastating Thirty Years War (1618-1648), they were the very first in the then modern style in all Germany. The gardens, adjacent to Schönborn castle, were created between 1677 and 1703 for Lothar Franz von Schönborn (1655-1729). Though the castle still exists today, the gardens have completely disappeared. The 3D reconstruction is based on seven engravings after drawings by Salomon Kleiner (published in 1728) as well as earlier engravings by Nikolaus Person (begun in 1697). The castle in the 3D model is roughly based on Kleiner's idealized representation. In the 18th century, the gardens must have existed as shown in the video. The octagonal pavilion is not depicted in the work of Salomon Kleiner, as it was demolished in 1716. I decided to show it in my reconstruction and followed the drawings by Nikolaus Person. An architectural highlight of the gardens at Gaibach was the orangery, a 62 m. wide construction, in the central part of which there was a large hall (ca. 17 x 10 m.), decorated with frescoes.
© Mark Pieters 3D 2022
WIESENTHEID BAROQUE GARDENS – virtual reconstruction.
Wiesentheid, a small town east of Würzburg, Bavaria, is still dominated by one of the countless castles which were built in the 18th century for the von Schönborn family. Originally, the castle’s formal gardens were more famous than the building itself. Unfortunately, the original park has been transformed into an English landscape garden in the early 19th century. The 3D reconstruction is based on six engravings which can be found in a book published in 1720 (‘Neue Garten Lust’). The author, Johann David Fülck, was the garden designer at Wiesentheid. A highlight of the Wiesentheid gardens was the ‘Lusthaus’, a small palace in an elegant baroque style. It is said that it was designed by Balthasar Neumann, architect of the Würzburg Residenz. However, it is more likely that it was built by the Würzburg Court Architect Joseph Greissing, Neumann’s teacher. Inside the ‘Lusthaus’ there was a large hall, ca. 20 x 7 m large and maybe some 10 m. high. The building was probably used as a ‘banqueting house’. It should be noted that the 3D model only shows the (still existing) Schönborn Castle in its basic form, without detail.
PALAIS ALTHAN VIENNA
(Ungargasse, Landstrasse District) – virtual reconstruction.
This palace was built ca. 1729-1732 by architect Josef Emanuel Fischer von Erlach. It was demolished in the 1840s.
In fact, this was the second Althan Palace. Since the early 1690s, another Althan Palace existed, which was built following plans by Josef Emanuel’s father Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, in the Alsergrund District. This very original building was torn down in 1869.
(https://markpieters.blogspot.com/2012/10/3d-althan-paleis.html)
As the second Althan Palace was demolished in the early 19th century, no photographs of the building exist. Fortunately, twelve excellent engravings after drawings by Salomon Kleiner, on which the 3D model is based, give a good impression of the palace’s original appearance.
