Orangery Palace

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 Sanssouci Park, and end at the Belvedere on the Klausberg. The difference in elevation was to be balanced with viaducts. With reference to the north side of the Picture Gallery and the New Chambers from the time of Frederick the Great, 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 construction of the Orangery Palace began after designs by the architects Friedrich August Stüler, Friedrich Ludwig Persius and Ludwig Ferdinand Hesse. The building, with its 300 meter long front, was built in the style of the Italian Renaissance, after the image of the Villa Medici in Rome and the Uffizi in Florence. 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 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 Elisabeth, Frederick William IV's wife, had a statue of the king erected in Memoriam after his death in 1861. Read More