Temple of Friendship

The building, in the form of a classical temple, was built south of the park's main boulevard between 1768 and 1770 by architect Carl von Gontard.

In August 1735, Frederick wrote to his sister Wilhelmine, who at that time was already married and living in Bayreuth: "The garden house is a temple of eight Doric columns holding up a domed roof.

To honor the memory of Wilhelmine, Frederick chose, as he had in Neuruppin, the form of an open, round temple with a shallow domed roof supported by eight Corinthian columns.

The medallions on the columns depicting pairs of friends in classical antiquity as well as the book in Wilhelmine's hand point to her fascination with that era.

Moreover, the homoerotic dimension of the classical couples may have made them especially appealing to the temple's builder, Frederick II, whose homosexual orientation was already the subject of much speculation and rumor during his lifetime.