Bellevue Palace, Kassel

Bellevue Palace
The palace in July 2010
Alternative names	Palais Bellevue, Schloss Bellevue
General information
Status	Museum
Town or city	Kassel
Country	Germany
Coordinates	51°18′35″N 9°29′38″E / 51.309839°N 9.493933°ECoordinates: 51°18′35″N 9°29′38″E / 51.309839°N 9.493933°E
Opening	1714
Design and construction
Architect	Paul du Ry

Bellevue Palace (German: Palais Bellevue or Schloss Bellevue) in Kassel was built in 1714 for Charles I, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel. Originally the building served as an Observatory. It became a residence, and then part of Bellevue Castle, which was later destroyed. Today the building houses a museum devoted to the Brothers Grimm.

Location

Bellevue Palace is near the center of Kassel, west of the Fulde River.^[1] It is next to the Neue Galerie, an art museum founded in 1976 in an 1874 neo-classical building.^[2] Bellevue Palace was erected in 1714 by the French architect and Huguenot refugee Paul du Ry as an observatory for Charles I (1654–1730), Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel.^[3]

History

From about 1725 on, the palace was used as a residence for members of the Landgrave's court, such as his mistress Barbara Christine von Bernhold (1690–1756).^[4] Prince Frederick II (1720–1785), Landgrave from 1760 on, married Mary, daughter of King George II of England. He had the palace surrounded by an Anglo-Chinese garden, the first such garden on the continent.^[5] In 1779, Frederick II opened a public museum of natural history and classical art, the Fridericianum, but kept the royal painting collection in Bellevue palace.^[6] In 1790 Simon Louis du Ry renovated the building for William IX (1743–1821).^[4]

During the Napoleonic era the palace became the property of Jérôme Bonaparte (1784–1860), King of Westphalia from 1807 to 1813. It first housed his foreign minister, Pierre Alexandre Le Camus.^[4] In 1810, Auguste-Henri-Victor Grandjean de Montigny rebuilt the state rooms of the palace,^[7] and after Kassel's primary palace had burned in 1811, Jérôme himself moved into Bellevue Palace. Jacob Grimm, the private librarian of King Jérôme and state auditor, was a frequent visitor. After Jérôme was expelled in 1813 William IX, later Elector William I of Hesse (1743–1821), returned. William II (1777–1847) also lived here. The Electress Augusta (1780–1841), who was estranged from William II, used it as her town house and summer residence.^[4]

In 1866 Hesse was annexed to Prussia. The building was recovered by a branch of the princely family in 1880.^[4] From 1933 until the Second World War it was the residence of Philipp, Landgrave of Hesse (1896–1980), during his tenure as President of the Province of Hesse-Nassau.^[8] In the mid-1930s Philipp made parts of the palace into a public art gallery.^[9] When Philipp was arrested in September 1943 on suspicion of plotting with the Italian royal family to over throw Mussolini, the palace was plastered with posters denouncing the Italian royalty.^[10] The palace survived Allied bombing raids during World War II (1939-1945) with little damage.^[11]

The palace was acquired by the city of Kassel in 1956, and until 1970 it was the home of the Municipal Art Collection.^[4] The Louis Spohr museum, closed by the Nazis in 1933, was re-opened in the building in 1967. It included four display rooms and an archive. The displays presented the violinist Louis Spohr and other violinists and violins of the period.^[1] In 1972 the Brothers Grimm exhibition was moved to the ground floor of the palace. In 1999 the Brothers Grimm Museum took over the entire building.^[4]

Structure

The Bellevue Palace is the only palace from the early 18th century in Kassel, since the others were destroyed during World War II or in an "anti-feudal" demolition wave in the 1950s.^[4] The building has simple but elegant facades, broken only by a slight cornice above the ground floor. It is three stories high and almost square, with two side wings on the rear garden. The street front has a balcony above a classical portal. The building originally had a cross-shaped roof structure with an octagonal dome for the observatory. Later this was replaced by a high mansard roof with gabled extensions.^[4] The interior has rooms decorated in a simple combination of rococo style and classicism. The classical stairway is well preserved. The large central room on the ground floor has a beautiful pilaster. Since 1994 the building has been extensively repaired and restored, with an escalator installed.^[4]

Gallery

• 

  The building in 1742, used as an observatory by Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr

• 

  Baroque door in the courtyard of the palace

• 

  Fountain in the courtyard

• 

  Old annex to the palace

References

Citations

1. Sadie 2005, p. 351.
2. Egert-Romanowskiej & Omilanowska 2010, p. 364.
3. Praeger 1971, p. 1815.
4. Das Palais Bellevue: Brüder-Grimm.
5. Lustig 1995, p. 45-46.
6. Paul 2012, p. 286.
7. B de L. 1854, p. 153.
8. Petropoulos 2006, p. 26.
9. Petropoulos 2006, p. 149.
10. Petropoulos 2006, p. 293.
11. Petropoulos 2006, p. 342.

Sources

• B de L. (1854). Biographie universelle (Michaud) ancienne et moderne. Michaud. Retrieved 2014-02-14.
• "Das Palais Bellevue - Sitz des Brüder-Grimm Museums". Brüder-Grimm Museum. Retrieved 2014-02-19.
• Egert-Romanowskiej, Joanna; Omilanowska, Malgorzata (2010-02-15). DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Germany. DK Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7566-7090-0. Retrieved 2014-02-19.
• Lustig, Irma S. (1995). Boswell: Citizen of the World, Man of Letters. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0-8131-3346-7. Retrieved 2014-02-19.
• Paul, Carole (2012-11-16). The First Modern Museums of Art: The Birth of an Institution in 18th- and Early- 19th-Century Europe. Getty Publications. ISBN 978-1-60606-120-6. Retrieved 2014-02-19.
• Petropoulos, Jonathan (2006-05-01). Royals and the Reich: The Princes von Hessen in Nazi Germany. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-979607-6. Retrieved 2014-02-19.
• Praeger Encyclopedia of Art. Praeger Publishers. 1971. Retrieved 2014-02-19.
• Sadie, Julie Anne (2005-07-10). Calling on the Composer: A Guide to European Composer Houses and Museums. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-10750-0. Retrieved 2014-02-19.