Garden Museum

Room 6 – Buildings in gardens

 

The Weißenstein and Schwetzingen palace gardens are good examples of the role of buildings in different styles of garden. In the Baroque era they govern the appearance of the entire garden, with the main palace as the optical centre.

All the other architectural features such as steps, cascades and orangeries are aligned with the main palace. They reflect the importance of proportion and geometric order in this period, which is also echoed in the layout of paths and flowerbeds. In Baroque gardens, nature is subordinate to and oriented around the architecture. In landscape gardens, the buildings are incorporated into the natural surroundings, functioning as props in the staging of a "natural" landscape.