Schwetzingen Palace is a schloss in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. Schwetzingen was the summer residence of the Electors Palatine Charles III Philip and Charles IV Theodore. It is situated in Schwetzingen, roughly equidistant from the electors' seats at Heidelberg and Mannheim, and is most notable for its spacious and ornate gardens. Other than these exceptionally well preserved gardens and the palace proper, the compound also features the Schlosstheater Schwetzingen, the principal venue for the annual Schwetzingen Festival.
Schwetzingen Palace (seen from the garden)
Schwetzingen Palace (entrance side)
Zirkelbau
"Gartenphaeton" of the prince-electors, 1775
Charles Theodore, Elector of Bavaria
Charles Theodore was a German nobleman of the Sulzbach branch of the House of Wittelsbach. He became Count Palatine of Sulzbach from his father Johann Christian in 1733, at the age of six. With the death of his cousin, Charles III Philip, he became Prince-elector and Count Palatine of the Rhine in 1742, being eighteen. In his fifties, he became Prince-Elector of Bavaria at the death of another cousin, Maximilian III Joseph, in 1777.
Painted by Anna Dorothea Therbusch in 1763
Charles Theodore
Schloss Benrath, Düsseldorf
Mosque at Schwetzingen Castle