Jacques Fouquières: Hortus Palatinus, oil on canvas, before 1620. The large-format painting depicts the Heidelberg Palace Gardens from an elevated standpoint so that the terracing and the respective lower-lying parterres are visible.
Under Elector Friedrich V the "Stückgarten", in which the cannons (also called "Stücke" in German) stood, was turned into a magnificent, world-famous pleasure garden and contributed to the fame of the ruler. The "Hortus Palatinus" was created in 1614-1619 by Salomon de Caus, who was called from London for the task.
At first enormous efforts were required to lay out the garden on the mountain slope. More than two years of hard work were invested to create terraces, which were divided into individual fields (parterres) on the broad terrain east of the mountain palace.
Here herbs, box trees and bitter oranges were planted, and colorful patterns of gravel and pottery fragments laid.
This also provides more emphasis for the waterworks (fountains etc.), which play a very central role.
The high points of the garden also included artificial grottos carved into the mountain.
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The Renaissance concept of an earthly paradise created by human hands became reality in the Hortus Palatinus. It unites technical, aesthetic and ideological principles to form an artistic synthesis. The Hortus Palatinus was long considered the eighth wonder of the world.
The devastation at various times in the history of Heidelberg Palace also took its toll on the gardens. Today fragments and careful restorations can still be found.
These were possible, because the garden architect, Salomon de Caus, published an essay on the garden with all the details in 1620. Today this still offers us an exact