Schloss Muskau (Muskau palace) is a ''

schloss ''Schloss'' (; pl. ''Schlösser''), formerly written ''Schloß'', is the German term for a building similar to a château, palace, or manor house. Related terms appear in several Germanic languages. In the Scandinavian languages, the cogn ...

'' in the Görlitz district in the state of

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. It is located in an extended park, the ''

Muskau Park Muskau Park (, officially: ''Fürst-Pückler-Park Bad Muskau''; ) is a landscape park in the Upper Lusatia region of Germany and Poland. It is the largest and one of the most famous English gardens in Central Europe, stretching along both sides ...

'', since July 2004 a UNESCO

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

. The building complex was developed over a long period. The present main building, called ''Neues Schloss'' (New Palace), was built in the 19th century in

Neo-Renaissance style Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th-century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range of ...

, burnt down in 1945, and after decades as a ruin, was reconstructed until 2013.

Geography

Muskau Park is the largest and one of the most famous

English landscape garden The English landscape garden, also called English landscape park or simply the English garden (, , , , ), is a style of "landscape" garden which emerged in England in the early 18th century, and spread across Europe, replacing the more formal ...

s in Central Europe, stretching along both sides of the German–Polish border on the

Lusatian Neisse The Lusatian Neisse (; ; ; Upper Sorbian: ''Łužiska Nysa''; Lower Sorbian: ''Łužyska Nysa''), or Western Neisse, is a river in northern Central Europe.

History

The park was laid out from 1815 onwards at the behest of

Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The fema ...

(1785–1871). Pückler reconstructed the medieval fortress as the "New Castle", the compositional centre of the park, with a network of paths radiating from it and a pleasure ground influenced by the ideas of

Humphry Repton Humphry Repton (21 April 1752 – 24 March 1818) was the last great designer of the classic phase of the English landscape garden, often regarded as the successor to Capability Brown. His style is thought of as the precursor of the more intric ...

, whose son John Adey worked at Muskau from 1822 on. The extensions went on until 1845, when Pückler because of his enormous debts was constrained to sell the patrimony. The next year it was acquired by

Prince Frederick of the Netherlands Prince Frederick of the Netherlands, Prince of Orange-Nassau (full names: Willem Frederik Karel; 28 February 1797, in Berlin – 8 September 1881, in Wassenaar), was the second son of William I of the Netherlands and his wife, Wilhelmine of Pr ...

, who employed

Eduard Petzold Carl Eduard Adolph Petzold (14 January 1815 – August 1891) was a German landscape gardener. Life Petzold was born in Lubniewice, Königswalde (Lubniewice), Province of Brandenburg, Brandenburg. As a child, he followed his parents in 1826 ...

, Pückler's disciple and a well-known landscape gardener, to complete his design. Upon his death in 1881, he was succeeded by his daughter Princess Marie, who sold the estates to the Count von Arnim.

Literature

* Hermann Graf von Arnim / Willi A. Boelcke: ''Muskau – Standesherrschaft zwischen Spree und Neiße.'' Frankfurt am Main, Berlin 1992. . * Sophie Gräfin von Arnim: ''Bilder aus Muskaus Vergangenheit.'' vol. 1,2. Görlitz 1934/35, Bd 3. München 1973. * Regina Barufke / Ekkehard Brucks / Ellen Kollewe / Helmut Rippl: ''Fürst Pückler-Park Bad Muskau – ein europäischer Landschaftspark.'' Beiträge zur Stadt- und Parkgeschichte Nr. 15 mit zwei Kartenbeilagen. Bad Muskau 1998. . * Willi A. Boelke: ''Verfassungswandel und Wirtschaftsstruktur. Die mittelalterliche und neuzeitliche Territorialgeschichte ostmitteldeutscher Adelsherrschaften als Beispiel.'' Würzburg 1969. * Lars-Arne Dannenberg, Matthias Donath: ''Schlösser in der östlichen Oberlausitz.'' Meißen 2009. * Joachim Fait, Detlef Karg (Hrsg.): ''Hermann Ludwig Heinrich Fürst von Pückler-Muskau. Gartenkunst und Denkmalpflege.'' Weimar 1989. . * Hermann Friedrich von Knothe: ''Geschichte des Oberlausitzer Adels und seiner Güter vom 13. bis gegen Ende des 16. Jahrhunderts.'' Spitzkunnersdorf 2008. . * Erich Merkle (ed.): ''Chronik von Stadt und Park Bad Muskau.'' Weißwasser 1997. . * Hermann von Pückler-Muskau: ''Andeutungen über Landschaftsgärtnerei verbunden mit der Beschreibung ihrer praktischen Anwendung in Muskau'',

834 __NOTOC__ Year 834 ( DCCCXXXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * March 1 – Emperor Louis the Pious is restored as sole ruler of the Frankish Empire. After his re-accession ...

Stuttgart 1977. . * Helmut Rippl (Hr.): ''Der Parkschöpfer Pückler-Muskau. Das gartenkünstlerische Erbe des Fürsten Hermann Ludwig Heinrich von Pückler-Muskau.'' Weimar 1995. . * Stiftung „Fürst-Pückler-Park Bad Muskau“ (ed.): ''Fürst Pückler. Parkomanie in Muskau und Branitz.'' Ein Führer durch seine Anlagen in Sachsen, Brandenburg und Thüringen. Hamburg 2006. .

External links

{{Commons category
Stiftung Fürst-Pückler-Park Bad Muskau
Palaces in Saxony Bad Muskau