Another monarch, and another glass-canopied hothouse. The extravagances of Ludwig II of Bavaria have featured here before but I’d overlooked the Winter Garden he had built in 1871 on the roof of the Munich Residenz, the home of the Bavarian royal family when they were in the capital. The views here are by court photographer Joseph Albert, and there isn’t much else online apart from this page at the palace website where we can see another Albert photo, and a painting by Julius Lange showing the idealised vision the king would have had in mind. With its painted scenery, “Moorish” tent, and artificial lighting—including rainbow and moonlight effects—Ludwig’s garden looks back to the exotica of the Royal Pavilion at Brighton, and also ahead to our current crop of theme parks and fantasy worlds. The Winter Garden was demolished after Ludwig’s death but the Residenz still contains other splendours, not least the jaw-dropping excess of the Antiquarium.
Previously on { feuilleton }
• The Schönbrunn Palm House
• The Royal Greenhouses of Laeken
• Arcades panoramas
• Arcades
• Schloss Falkenstein
• Schloss Linderhof
• Schloss Neuschwanstein
• Passage des Panoramas
• Passages 2
• Passages
This is really extraordinary, I like to think of myself as sufficiently Ludwig-mad; clearly I have overlooked some key aspects of the King and his creations. Thank you as always for the fresh information.
Respectfully,
Leonard
Thanks, Leonard. If he hadn’t built so much that was lavish and extraordinary then this might be better known. Even a substantial roof-garden has a hard time competing with whole castles!