The Orangery Palace (german: Orangerieschloss) is a palace located in the

Sanssouci Park Sanssouci Park is a large park surrounding Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam, Germany, built under Frederick the Great in the mid-1700s. Following the terracing of the vineyard and the completion of the palace, the surroundings were included in the st ...

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and, with around 183,000 inhabitants, largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

. It is also known as the New

Orangery An orangery or orangerie was a room or a dedicated building on the grounds of fashionable residences of Northern Europe from the 17th to the 19th centuries where orange and other fruit trees were protected during the winter, as a very lar ...

on the Klausberg, or just the Orangery. It was built on behest of the "Romantic on the Throne", King Friedrich Wilhelm IV (

Frederick William IV of Prussia Frederick William IV (german: Friedrich Wilhelm IV.; 15 October 17952 January 1861), the eldest son and successor of Frederick William III of Prussia, reigned as King of Prussia from 7 June 1840 to his death on 2 January 1861. Also referred to ...

) from 1851 to 1864.

Background

The building of the Orangery began with a plan for a high street or triumph street. It was to begin at the triumph arch, east of

, and end at the Belvedere on the Klausberg. The difference in elevation was to be balanced with

viaduct A viaduct is a specific type of bridge that consists of a series of arches, piers or columns supporting a long elevated railway or road. Typically a viaduct connects two points of roughly equal elevation, allowing direct overpass across a wide v ...

s. With reference to the north side of the Picture Gallery and the New Chambers from the time of

Frederick the Great Frederick II (german: Friedrich II.; 24 January 171217 August 1786) was King in Prussia from 1740 until 1772, and King of Prussia from 1772 until his death in 1786. His most significant accomplishments include his military successes in the Sil ...

, Frederick William IV sketched out more new buildings, which would decorate his two kilometer long ''Via Triumphalis''. Because of the political unrest of the period ( March Revolution) and lack of funding, the gigantic project never materialized. Only the Orangery Palace and the ''Triumphtor'' were ever realized.

The Palace

The construction of the Orangery Palace began after designs by the architects

Friedrich August Stüler Friedrich August Stüler (28 January 1800 – 18 March 1865) was an influential Prussian architect and builder. His masterpiece is the Neues Museum in Berlin, as well as the dome of the triumphal arch of the main portal of the Berliner Schloss. ...

Friedrich Ludwig Persius Friedrich Ludwig Persius (15 February 1803 in Potsdam – 12 July 1845 in Potsdam) was a Prussian architect and a student of Karl Friedrich Schinkel. Persius assisted Schinkel with, among others, the building of the Charlottenhof Castle an ...

and . The building, with its 300 meter long front, was built in the style of the Italian Renaissance, after the image of the

Villa Medici The Villa Medici () is a Mannerist villa and an architectural complex with a garden contiguous with the larger Borghese gardens, on the Pincian Hill next to Trinità dei Monti in Rome, Italy. The Villa Medici, founded by Ferdinando I de' Medici, ...

in Rome and the

Uffizi The Uffizi Gallery (; it, Galleria degli Uffizi, italic=no, ) is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums ...

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...

. The middle building with its twin towers is the actual palace. This building is joined to the 103 meter long and 16 meter wide Plant Hall, with its almost ceiling-to-floor windows on the south side. In the western hall, the original floor duct heating system is still present and functioning. In the alcoves along the garden side of the castle annex, there are

allegorical As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory t ...

figures of the months and seasons. In the corner building at the end of the Orangery Hall were the royal apartments and the servants' quarters. In front of the

peristyle In ancient Greek and Roman architecture, a peristyle (; from Greek ) is a continuous porch formed by a row of columns surrounding the perimeter of a building or a courtyard. Tetrastoön ( grc, τετράστῳον or τετράστοον, lit=f ...

Elisabeth, Frederick William IV's wife, had a statue of the king erected ''in Memoriam'' after his death in 1861.

Orangery interior

Behind the portico, in the middle building, lies the over two-story-tall Raffael Hall. It was based on the '' Sala Regia'' in the

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum The Holy See * The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...

. Over a large skylight in the high clouded ceiling, light falls into the Museum Hall. On the red silk covered walls, hang over fifty copies of

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ide ...

paintings and frescoes. Frederick William IV inherited the works from his father, King

Frederick William III of Prussia Frederick William III (german: Friedrich Wilhelm III.; 3 August 1770 – 7 June 1840) was King of Prussia from 16 November 1797 until his death in 1840. He was concurrently Elector of Brandenburg in the Holy Roman Empire until 6 August 1806, w ...

, and assembled them here. The royal apartments were outfitted in the second

Rococo Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...

style, connected to both sides of the Raffael Hall. They were intended as guest rooms for

Tsar Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East and South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" in the European medieval sense of the ter ...

Nicholas I and his wife, Alexandra Feodorovna. The Tsarina was the favorite sister of Frederick William IV, Charlotte, who gave up her name along with her homeland when she married. Between 1949 and 2010 the Palace also housed premises of the Brandenburgian State Main Archive in its eastern wing.

Garden construction

The gardens were styled after those of the Italian Renaissance by the garden architect,

Peter Joseph Lenné Peter Joseph Lenné (the Younger) (29 September 1789 – 23 January 1866) was a Prussian gardener and landscape architect. As director general of the Royal Prussian palaces and parks in Potsdam and Berlin, his work shaped the development of 19 ...

. In the west, below the annex, he designed the Paradise Garden in 1843–44. It contains many exotic flowers and foliage plants. The atrium, a small building in middle of the compound, designed in the ancient style, was built on plans by

Ludwig Persius Friedrich Ludwig Persius (15 February 1803 in Potsdam – 12 July 1845 in Potsdam) was a Prussian architect and a student of Karl Friedrich Schinkel. Persius assisted Schinkel with, among others, the building of the Charlottenhof Castle an ...

in 1845. The current Botanical Garden, with its systematically arranged planting, is used by the

University of Potsdam The University of Potsdam is a public university in Potsdam, capital of the state of Brandenburg, Germany. It is mainly situated across three campuses in the city. Some faculty buildings are part of the New Palace of Sanssouci which is known ...

as a ''teaching garden''. The Norse and Sicilian Gardens lie to the east. These completely different garden sections were laid out by Lenné between 1857 and 1860. The dark, effective Norse Garden, with its pines, was to have been an element of the planned triumph street. The Sicilian Garden, with its palm tubs, myrtles, laurels, flowers,

arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware ** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board * Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games * ...

s, and fountains, runs southward.

World Heritage Site

Since 1990, the Orangery has been part of the UNESCO

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...

Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin (german: Schlösser und Gärten von Potsdam und Berlin) are a group of palace complexes and extended landscape gardens located in the Havelland region around Potsdam and the German capital of Berlin. The te ...

". The palace is administered by the '' Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg''.

References

Additional reading

* Paul Sigel, Silke Dähmlow, Frank Seehausen und Lucas Elmenhorst, Architekturführer Potsdam - Architectural Guide, Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin 2006, . * Gert Streidt, Klaus Frahm: ''Potsdam. Die Schlösser und Gärten der Hohenzollern.'' Könemann Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Köln 1996, * Waltraud Volk: ''Potsdam. Historische Straßen und Plätze heute.'' 2nd edition, 1993. Verlag für Bauwesen Berlin-München 1993,

External links

*
Potsdam from Above - Orangerie
{{Coord, 52, 24, 18, N, 13, 01, 47, E, region:DE-BB_type:landmark, display=title Houses completed in 1864 Castles in Brandenburg Buildings and structures in Potsdam Palaces in Brandenburg Gardens in Brandenburg Royal residences in Brandenburg Prussian cultural sites Museums in Potsdam Historic house museums in Germany Sanssouci Park World Heritage Sites in Germany Orangeries