Hortus Palatinus

The garden was commissioned by Frederick V, Elector Palatine in 1614 for his new wife, Elizabeth Stuart, and became famous across Europe during the 17th century for the landscaping and horticultural techniques involved in its design.

The Hortus Palatinus was commissioned by Frederick V, the ruler of the Palatinate, a leading member of the Holy Roman Empire and the head of the Protestant Union, with a martial family tradition stretching back several centuries.

Although the match had a political purpose – effectively uniting the Protestant lines of England, the Palatinate, the Dutch House of Orange-Nassau and Denmark – the two were genuinely in love, and remained a romantic couple throughout the course of their marriage.

[2] Frederick returned to Heidelberg, his capital, ahead of his bride and set about transforming his castle, creating an 'English wing' for her, a monkey-house, a menagerie – and the beginnings of a new garden in the Italian Renaissance style popular in England at the time.

[11] Other dramatic features included a water organ in imitation of the Roman writer Vitruvius' design,[12] clockwork-driven musical automata birds who sang as nightingales and cuckoos,[13] mazes[14] and a recreation of the legendary animated statue of Memnon.

[20] In this interpretation, the gardens are intended to capture 'a universal vision, based on a union of the arts, science and religion', combined with 'an ancient tradition of secret wisdom handed down over the ages'.

[31] By the time that Frederick's son Charles Louis was returned to the lower Palatinate in 1648, the principality was in dire economic straits – pleasure gardens were a low priority for the new ruler.