Schlosspark Nymphenburg

About

The Nymphenburg Palace Park ranks among the finest and most important examples of garden design in Germany. In combination with the palace buildings, the Grand circle entrance structures and the expansive park landscape form the ensemble of the Nymphenburg Summer Residence of Bavarian dukes and kings, located in the modern Munich Neuhausen-Nymphenburg borough. The site is a Listed Monument, a Protected Landscape and to a great extent a Natura2000 area. The exquisite composition of formal garden elements and English-style country park is considered a masterpiece of garden design and the spacious complex of palace and park has always been a popular attraction for local residents and tourists alike. To the east the park adjoins the palace buildings and the Grand circle. To the south and west the park is largely enclosed by the original Garden wall and borders the Botanical Garden to the north and beyond Menzinger Straße the park periphery partly merges with the Kapuzinerhölzl forest.

The designs of the original Baroque gardens had largely been modeled on the French gardens at Vaux-le-Vicomte and Versailles. The modern park layout is the result of a fundamental redesign by Friedrich Ludwig...

The park is divided into the vast country and landscape park sector in the west and the formal garden sector adjacent to the palace. The Central canal divides the park into a northern and a southern sector. Water is provided by the Würm river in the west (ca. 2 km (1.2 mi)) and transferred to the park via the Pasing-Nymphenburg Canal and discharges via two canals to the east and northeast and via the Hartmannshofer Bach to the north.

The western landscape park features the smaller Pagodenburg Lake with the Pagodenburg in the northern part and the larger Badenburg Lake with the Apollo Temple and the Badenburg in the south. The Grünes Brunnhaus ( Green Pump House ), in which the water wheel works and pressure pumps for the park fountains are installed, is situated in the village in the southern part of the park. The Amalienburg occupies a parterre in the southeastern area of the park.

To the east, the park ends at the palace building. On the garden side of the palace (west) follows the large Garden parterre, which constitutes the central part of the large rectangle surrounded by canals. The Garden parterre flanks the Central (axis) canal. The Grand circle ( Schlossrondell ) is situated to the east on the city side of the palace.

The 1662 birth of Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria of the Wittelsbach family was the occasion to consider the construction of a palatial residence and garden for the young mother, Electoress Henriette Adelaide of Savoy, in between the villages of Neuhausen and Obermenzing. The foundation stone was laid for the Schwaigbau zu Nymphenburg in 1664. Contrary to a common misconception, the Italian name Borgo delle Ninfe (castle of the nymph ) was only created in the 19th century. The initial building was a Lustschloss (pleasure palace) in the tradition of Italian country villas. The elaborate Baroque palace complex, which would serve as a summer residence and alternative to the seat of government, the Munich Residenz, was only realized a generation later under the adult Maximilian II Emanuel. The model for the Lustschloss was the Piedmontese hunting lodge at the Palace of Venaria, whose architect Amedeo di Castellamonte supplied the first designs for the Nymphenburg Palace. Agostino Barelli served as the first architect and Markus Schinnagl was employed as master builder. Work began in 1664 with the construction of a cube-shaped palace building and the creation of an Italian-style Garden parterre to the west.

From 1701 to 1704 Charles Carbonet altered and extended the garden in the style of the French Baroque. Simultaneously the approximately 2.5 km (1.6 mi) long Pasing-Nymphenburg canal was constructed and connected to the Würm river.

From 1715 onwards Dominique Girard, who had previously worked in André Le Nôtre 's Versailles Gardens, realized the spacious arrangements of the park with the support of Joseph Effner, a student of Germain Boffrand. Girard managed to skillfully distribute the water in the formerly dry area. A rectangle of canals was built, forming an island for the main palace and the Garden parterre. The ca. 900 m (3,000 ft) long Central axis canal sector to the west of the rectangle was added, which ends at the Great Cascade, where it was connected to the Pasing-Nymphenburg canal. In the manner of French models, roads were laid out in straight lines and rows of trees and arcades were planted, in order to strictly divide the park. The complex now consisted of two main areas, the ornamental garden near the palace and the forest in the west. The park castles sit on independent, small parterres.

From 1715 on, Maximilian II Emanuel had the forest outside the palace park transformed into a deer hunting range and enlarged to nearly reach Lake Starnberg. On a larger scale, aisles and roads were created and three hunting lodges erected.

Since 1804 Director of the Royal Gardens Friedrich Ludwig Sckells redesigned and initiated fundamental changes towards the current park design. In 1792 he accomplished the masterful and harmonious combination of the French and English garden style as he had previously at Schwetzingen Palace garden in Baden-Württemberg. However the completion in Nymphenburg took much longer due to the enormous size of the park. From 1799 on, Sckell first designed the secluded Crown Prince's Garden. The work on the spacious landscape park based on the English model began in 1804 with the southern part, which was completed in 1807. The northern part was only completed in 1823.

Unlike Lancelot Brown in England, who created extensive landscape parks by destroying the old Baroque gardens, Sckell acted more cautiously. He preserved the parterres on the garden side of the palace as well as the Central axis canal and the Great cascade. He decided to subdivide the park into two distinct landscape areas of varying size, each with its own character and atmosphere, to which two very differently shaped and designed lakes contributed significantly.

Sckell's ploys made Nymphenburg Palace Park a prime example of the synthesis of two fundamentally different garden types. The orderly French Baroque garden, which maintains the idea to enhance nature through the means of art and order flanked by the English landscape park, that highlights the free play of nature. Some areas of the park were first opened to the public in 1792 under Elector Charles Theodore.

Originally, the driveways, the Great circle, the palace and the park constituted a unit that once stretched from east to west over a distance of more than 3 km (1.9 mi) to the west of the city of Munich. The growth of the city admitted the full development of residential areas and road network into the surrounding areas. The construction of the wide Ludwig Ferdinand Bridge over the Nymphenburg Canal, of houses along the northern and southern entrance to the palace and the railway line in the west, completely embedded the park and the palace into the urban structures and thus became a district of the city.

With the monarchy abolished, the park and palace became part of the former Krongut (Crown estate), now administered by the state. After the Weimar Republic, the National Socialists seized the complex. Beginning in the summer of 1936, the Night of the Amazons was regularly performed. After the violent appropriation of the monastery church in the Orangery wing, a hunting museum was opened in this part of the palace in October 1938. The NSDAP local group leadership received an underground bunker and in 1942 established a Forced Labour Camp at the Hirschgarten (Deer Garden), just outside of the park.

During the Second World War, the palace and the Amalienburg were camouflaged to protect them from air raids, the large pathways were darkened and sections of the Central canal were covered and the water basins on the city side of the palace leveled. The palace church, the Entrance court, the Badenburg and the Grand Cascade were destroyed or seriously damaged by bombs. The Pan group of sculptures and a number of trees in the park were also damaged. After the war Allied soldiers blew up an old building south of the Great Cascade that had been used as an armory.

The repairs at the palace and the park only proceeded slowly. Although the restoration was carried out according to the historical models, a number of losses could not be restored. The sports ground in the southernmost corner of the park, built before World War II, still represents an ongoing violation of the park’s design.

During the 1972 Summer Olympics, equestrian events took place in the palace park: the dressage competitions were held on the Garden parterre. The park's statues were removed, the equestrian arena and grandstands were erected as temporary facilities while adjacent buildings of the palace were used as stables.

The 1662 birth of Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria of the Wittelsbach family was the occasion to consider the construction of a palatial residence and garden for the young mother, Electoress Henriette Adelaide of Savoy, in between the villages of Neuhausen and Obermenzing. The foundation stone was laid for the Schwaigbau zu Nymphenburg in 1664. Contrary to a common misconception, the Italian name Borgo delle Ninfe (castle of the nymph ) was only created in the 19th century. The initial building was a Lustschloss (pleasure palace) in the tradition of Italian country villas. The elaborate Baroque palace complex, which would serve as a summer residence and alternative to the seat of government, the Munich Residenz, was only realized a generation later under the adult Maximilian II Emanuel. The model for the Lustschloss was the Piedmontese hunting lodge at the Palace of Venaria, whose architect Amedeo di Castellamonte supplied the first designs for the Nymphenburg Palace. Agostino Barelli served as the first architect and Markus Schinnagl was employed as master builder. Work began in 1664 with the construction of a cube-shaped palace building and the creation of an Italian-style Garden parterre to the west.

From 1701 to 1704 Charles Carbonet altered and extended the garden in the style of the French Baroque. Simultaneously the approximately 2.5 km (1.6 mi) long Pasing-Nymphenburg canal was constructed and connected to the Würm river.

From 1715 onwards Dominique Girard, who had previously worked in André Le Nôtre 's Versailles Gardens, realized the spacious arrangements of the park with the support of Joseph Effner, a student of Germain Boffrand. Girard managed to skillfully distribute the water in the formerly dry area. A rectangle of canals was built, forming an island for the main palace and the Garden parterre. The ca. 900 m (3,000 ft) long Central axis canal sector to the west of the rectangle was added, which ends at the Great Cascade, where it was connected to the Pasing-Nymphenburg canal. In the manner of French models, roads were laid out in straight lines and rows of trees and arcades were planted, in order to strictly divide the park. The complex now consisted of two main areas, the ornamental garden near the palace and the forest in the west. The park castles sit on independent, small parterres.