Electoral Palace, Koblenz
[1] In the garden behind the palace is an 1854 sandstone sculpture by Johann Hartung depicting the allegorical figures Father Rhine and Mother Mosel.
He was let go on 18 December 1779 and was replaced on the Academy's recommendation by another French architect, Antoine-François Peyre the Younger, whose modified plans submitted in 1780[2] produced the smaller and simpler structure which was built.
During the War of the First Coalition, the advance of the French revolutionary army finally made it necessary for Clemens Wenceslaus to flee on 7 October 1794.
Before leaving, Clemens Wenceslaus had what could be moved loaded on ships and taken to Augsburg, where the pieces became part of the furnishings of the electoral residence there.
[1] From 1833 to 1852, the belvedere of the southern wing was surmounted by an apparatus constituting one terminus (station 61) of the Prussian semaphore line between Berlin, Cologne and Koblenz.
The first section of the Rhine promenade, designed by Peter Joseph Lenné and later named the Kaiserin Augusta Anlagen after her, was created at her urging.
Until a few weeks before her death in January 1890, she continued to pay annual visits to the palace and the city of Koblenz, her "Rhenish Potsdam".
Until the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the palace continued to be frequently visited by members of the Prussian royal, then imperial family.
[3] After the war, it housed various government offices until 1923,[1] when it was the site of the proclamation of the separatist Rhenish Republic under Minister-President-designate Josef Friedrich Matthes which lasted until 9 February 1924.
[6] However, interest in the Thingspiel movement waned rapidly, and already at the end of 1937 a contest was organised to redesign the forecourt as a simple parade ground, doing away with the amphitheatre;[7] in later years it was mainly used for the annual May Day ceremonies.
[1] A competition was held to choose art works for these rooms: the staircase was decorated on the ground floor with a statue by Emil Krieger entitled Kore, on the landings with Europa on the Bull by Otto Rumpf and Horse and Rider by Werner Meurer and on the first floor with niche paintings by Edvard Frank; Rolf Müller-Landau created allegorical paintings for the niches in the south hall on the ground floor; two paintings in the northern vestibule of the garden room are by Edgar Ehse; and a mosaic on one wall of the grand staircase, signed E. K., is probably by Eugen Keller.
The selection committee attempted to reproduce as closely as possible the original impression a visitor would have received, including in the choice of colours, but the works reflect the period of their creation.
The palace was opened up to provide a direct route by way of the Schlossstraße from the new central Koblenz railway station to the bank of the Rhine.
The entire area was laid out with many different kinds of flowers, pools, fountains, radiating terraces and walls for seating, reflecting the splendour in which rulers formerly lived in the palace.
The Koblenz Lichtströme (lightstreams) lighting festival which began in association with the 2011 Horticultural Show featured the Electoral Palace in 2012.
The Casa Magica artists' group projected a light show based on magnetic resonance imaging onto the facade.
