Because of Luise's resistance to Napoleon and her
early death – heroes die young, and she lived only 34 years - the queen
was soon ennobled the German Joan of Arc.
From 1797 to 1804, Architect
David Gilly
designed and executed the manor and village of Paretz as a summer residence
with high aesthetic standards for Crown Prince
Frederick William
(III) and his wife, Luise.
The crown princess was immediately fond of the place and wrote to her
father, "I can't wait to go to Paretz."
The interior of the little village church is simple, but it houses the
most important monument to Queen Luise, her Apotheosis, a terracotta
relief by
Johann Gottfried Schadow.
Fontane was not impressed: "The 'King's Chair' is separated from the nave by a balustrade. It has the dimensions of a small room; the furnishing is simple; on the west wall rises ... a work by Schadow, which has become known through the engraving, 'The Apotheosis of Queen Luise.' More peculiar than beautiful."
Paretz Manor today |
The Royal Country Manor in Paretz in 1805 by Franz Hillner.
The royal couple is seen with some members of the court. I identify the man with a walking stick approaching the group as David Gilly. |
The crown prince inculcated his architect, "Just always think that you are
building for a poor landowner." So Gilly kept the construction of the
manor simple.
Later in his Walks through the March of Brandenburg,
Theodor Fontane
called Paretz the still-in-the-country manor.
Queen Luise and her family enjoyed
those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer, although not those of soda and pretzels and beer but those of bourgeois family life. Far from courtly etiquette and the pomp and pageantry of the Prussian residential city of
Berlin, they enjoyed a life in Paretz that became a model for an entire
generation in a time of profound change.
Why "dead churchyard? When Paretz was built, the old churchyard lay
directly within the view of the royal living room. So from 1800 onwards,
on the demand of the royal couple, burials were only allowed without
gravestones.
And it had changed entirely when Fontane visited Paretz, "Around the church lies a so-called, "dead
churchyard;" the "living" one, the place where people are buried, lies
outside, on the edge of the village"... Paretz is a place of remembrance
and reverence, even the "dead churchyard." He indeed referred to Luise.
As a prime example of Prussian rural architecture around 1800, the
ensemble fulfilled both the desire for a royal country residence and the
requirements of a functioning farming village. It blends harmoniously
into the broad landscape along the Havel River, in the secluded idyll of
the peaceful Havelland,
Entering the manor through the entrance hall |
View through the suite of rooms in the entrance wing. |
View through the suite of rooms in the residential wing. |
The royal music room. Note the painted wallpapers in the various rooms. |
The royal chamber pot is one of the few preserved original items. |
The royal reading room. |
A masterpiece of the Royal Porcelain Manufactory founded in 1753
by
Frederick the Great. The vase shows Paretz Manor. |
Breakfast will soon be served. |
Look into the park or rather the countryside behind the manor. |
Look out of the front door in the direction of the "dead churchyard." |
Paretz church |
Luise glorified, deified, ennobled, you name it. |
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