- Type
- Palace / château
- Built
- 1720 · 18th century
- Site origins
- 14th century per Wikidata – an earlier stronghold or first mention
- Style
- Renaissance architecture
- Coordinates
- 51.0089°, 13.8702°
History
A knight's manor stood here in the Middle Ages and was rebuilt as a Renaissance castle in the 16th century. In the early 18th century Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, gave the estate to his mistress Countess Cosel; after her fall from favour he took it back, and from 1720 Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann built the Water Palace on the Elbe, followed soon after by the Hill Palace, both in the then fashionable "Indian" style, or chinoiserie. In August 1791 Emperor Leopold II and King Frederick William II of Prussia issued a declaration at Pillnitz aimed at revolutionary France. After the old castle burnt down in 1818, Christian Friedrich Schuricht built the New Palace between the other two. Until 1918 Pillnitz remained the summer seat of the Saxon court.
What to see
Three palaces with curved, Chinese-style roofs and Far Eastern scenes painted beneath the cornices surround a Baroque garden. On the river side, broad steps lead down to the Elbe, where gondolas from Dresden once moored. The Water and Hill Palaces house a museum of decorative arts, and the New Palace a palace museum with a chapel. The extensive park includes English and Chinese gardens and a palm house.
Wikipedia article Official website Wikidata Q462239
Popularity: articles about this site in 19 Wikimedia projects (Wikipedia language editions and others).