Pillnitz Castle and Park

With the construction of the New Palace from 1818 to 1826 all of today’s structures on and around the castle were largely finished. There had been several construction phases before, but the first ones to have a drastic impact took place under Elector Frederick Augustus I up until 1730: construction of Wasserpalais (Water Palace) and Bergpalais (Mountain Palace) as well as the complex of Lustgarten (Pleasure Garden) and Großer Schlossgarten (Large Palace Garden).  

Between 1778 and 1804 the palace garden was extended in the English style and the Chinese and English Pavilion were built. From 1864 to 1867 the Lustgarten was redesigned after the ideas of Peter Joseph Lennè, followed by the Spielgarten (Play Garden) which was finished in 1880. With these changes the appearance of today’s Pillnitz Castle and Park – that of being a conglomerate but still appearing as one – was rounded off.  

This is due in part to the creative empathy of Johann Daniel Schade, Christian Traugott Weinlig, Carl Christian Vogel (of Vogelstein), but most notably to Christian Friedrich Schuricht who took up the Baroque design of Matthaeus Daniel Poeppelmann from the early 18th century and masterfully combined it with more modern stylistic movements.  
From 1768 to 1918 Pillnitz Castle served as summer residence of the Saxon court. Since 1946 the castle is one of the exhibition venues of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (Dresden State Art Collections).