Ludwig’s Winter Garden

munich1.jpg

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.

munich2.jpg

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