Schwetzingen Park Mosque

The Schwetzingen Park Mosque (German: Moschee im Schwetzinger Schlossgarten), also known as the Red Mosque (German: Rote Moschee) is a decorative building in the park of Schwetzingen Palace in the former Electoral Palatinate, now the northern tip of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Built in 1779–1793, it is the oldest mosque-like building in Germany.

Red Mosque (Schwetzingen)
German: Rote Moschee
Location
Location	Schwetzingen, Germany
Shown within Germany
Geographic coordinates	49°23′01″N 8°33′57″E
Architecture
Architect(s)	Nicolas de Pigage
Type	mosque
Style	Mock Turkish
Groundbreaking	1779-1793

The Schwetzingen Park Mosque was not intended as an actual place for Muslim prayer, and did not serve as one except for brief periods in the 1870s and 1980s. Instead, it signalled acknowledgement of the value of non-Christian religions and specifically Islam, underlined by a number of inscriptions inside and outside the building that are meant to embody ageless wisdom attributed to a semi-mythical Orient. As such, the Schwetzingen Park Mosque can be viewed as an early monument to religious tolerance and an exemplar of the Age of Enlightenment.

History

The Red Mosque was built on the design of French architect Nicolas de Pigage on the orders of Charles Theodore, Elector of Bavaria, in a hybrid style that was intended to partly mimic Ottoman architecture. The first stage of construction was the Turkish Garden (French: jardin turc) in 1776. The construction of the mosque began in 1779 and was completed in 1792–1793, while the minarets were completed only in 1795–1796. The cost was about 120,000 guilders, making the mosque the most expensive building in the Schwetzingen Park. At the time construction began, the court had already moved to Munich because Charles Theodore had become Elector of Bavaria in 1778, while retaining his electoral dignity in the Palatinate.

The building lacks some typical elements of a mosque, such as a mihrab, minbar, and ablution fountain, even though it features two tall minarets and a domed prayer hall. It was actually used for Islamic worship after the Franco-Prussian War, when prisoners of war from the Maghreb were housed in military hospitals near Schwetzingen, as well in the 1980s. Since 1970, the entire Schwetzingen Palace complex has been reconstructed in accordance with the park maintenance plan. The restoration of the mosque began in the 1990s and was completed in 2007. The state of Baden-Württemberg has invested about 2.5 million euros to renovate the exterior of the mosque, 6 million euros to renovate the prayer aisles and 1.5 million euros to the interior.

Architecture

The dome of the mosque is similar to elements of Christian architecture, and the way its façade is flanked by the minarets is reminiscent of the Karlskirche in Vienna, consecrated in 1737. The interior of the main and secondary domes are decorated with stars, viewed as a common symbol of Islam. Courtyards are located at the rear end of the building, unlike in a typical Ottoman mosque.

The mosque, with a ceiling decorated with stars, represents the night and the sky in a spiritual and spiritual sense, and at the same time is a symbol of life after death.

Gallery

• 
  Aerial view of the mosque complex
• 
  View in 1825
• 
  The mosque reflected in the nearby pond
• 
  Mosque portal, side view
• 
  Panoramic view from rear courtyard
• 
  Inside domed hall with decorative bilingual inscriptions in Arabic and German
• 
  Bilingual inscription under the dome
• 
  Summer Gallery
• 
  Decorative arches of the summer gallery
• 
  Rear entrance to the courtyard
• 
  Detail of minaret

See also

• Tolerance Monument
• List of mosques in Germany
• Yavuz Sultan Selim Mosque

Further reading

• Carl-Ludwig Fuchs, Claus Reisinger: Schloss und Garten zu Schwetzingen. Werner, Worms 2001, ISBN 3-88462-164-5.
• Wiltrud Heber: Die Arbeiten des Nicolas de Pigage in den ehemals kurpfälzischen Residenzen Mannheim und Schwetzingen. Werner, Worms 1986, ISBN 3-88462-909-3, Manuskripte zur Kunstwissenschaft in der Wernerschen Verlagsgesellschaft 10, (Zugleich: Heidelberg, Univ., Diss., 1977).
• Jörg Gamer: Bemerkungen zum Garten der kurfürstlich-pfälzischen Sommerresidenz Schwetzingen in Carl Theodor und Elisabeth Auguste Höfische Kunst und Kultur in der Kurpfalz Ausstellungskatalog für das Kurpfälzische Museum Hrsg. Jörn Bahms unter der Schirmherrschaft des Heidelberger OB Rheinhold Zundel (Erscheinungsjahr 1979), S. 20–25.
• Franz Schwaab: Die grosse Moschee zu Mekka in Arabien und deren Nachbildung, die Moschee im Schwezinger Garten. Schwetzingen ca. 1895 (Digitalisat).

External links

Media related to Moschee Schwetzingen at Wikimedia Commons

• Offizielle Website zur Moschee im Schwetzinger Schlossgarten
• Landeskunde online: Die Moschee im Schwetzinger Schlossgarten