Orangerie Castle (Kassel)

The Orangerie in Kassel was built below or about 400 m south of the former city palace near the western bank of the Fulda river under Landgrave Karl between 1703 and 1711. Since then, it has formed the northern beginning of the Karlsaue.

On the site of today's Orangerie Palace and the Hessenkampfbahn in front of it, a walled palace garden was laid out in 1568 by Wilhelm IV, with a small pleasure palace at the south end. His successor Landgrave Moritz redesigned the garden at the beginning of the 17th century.

The current baroque palace was built from about 1702 onwards, following French models; the landgrave's court architect Johann Conrad Giesler is considered the architect. The main building is 139.40 meters long and was executed as a low building with a higher, two-story central section and two higher, three-story corner pavilions. The architecture of the building is continued in the axes of the baroque garden.

The long galleries served as ballrooms and at the same time as winter quarters for the potted plants placed in the so-called Orangerie Garden in summer. This developed into the highly regarded Kassel Orangerie culture. The corner pavilions were used by the landgrave's family as a summer residence. On the upper floor of the central building was the richly designed Apollo Hall. It is noteworthy that it could only be reached via the open roof - there was no staircase. The underlying, once open gate passage of the Orangerie connected the so-called Voraue (today Hessenkampfbahn) and the rest of the park. The main axis of the magnificent baroque park thus passed through the building.

Landgrave Karl planned to flank the main building of the Orangerie with several pavilion buildings standing somewhat apart. However, during his lifetime, only the Marble Bath at the western end of the Orangerie was executed (1722), a magnificent room that served no practical purpose other than to display numerous marble sculptures by Pierre-Étienne Monnot and can be visited today as part of guided tours. It was not until 1765 that the symmetry of the complex was restored by Simon Louis du Ry with the construction of the kitchen pavilion, which stands opposite the Marble Bath to the east.

After the occupation of Kurhessen by French troops, the Orangerie first served as a lazaret and magazine. In 1808, the Westphalian King Jérôme Bonaparte convened the provincial estates here, before the Fridericianum was converted into the "Palace of the Estates". In 1813, Kassel was liberated by the Russian army. The portal of the Marble Bath still bears the scars of Russian shellfire today.

From 1830, the interior was severely damaged by unsuccessful repair work. Most of the stucco work and the interior painting were lost. In 1872, the stucco decorations of the exterior were significantly altered. Among other things, the baroque medallions of Roman emperors were replaced by portraits of Hessian rulers, and the damaged statues from the niches on the north side were removed.

Often, the main part of the Orangerie and the Voraue, which was converted into the Hessenkampfbahn sports field in 1926, were used as exhibition buildings or grounds for industrial, commercial, and specialized exhibitions of various kinds.

During World War II, the Orangerie was severely damaged in a British air raid in October 1943. Afterwards, the ruin was provisionally secured and served in this form in 1955 as an exhibition venue for the second Federal Garden Show and the documenta. In the 1970s, its external appearance was restored, with the historical remains of the south side on the long wings being replaced by faulty replicas. The decorations of the front facade only correspond to the state of 1872; the interior has been completely redesigned.