Antique Temple

The Ancient Temple is a small circular temple in the western part of Sanssouci Park in Potsdam. Frederick the Great had the building constructed to store his collection of ancient works of art, coins and gems. 1768/69 Carl von Gontard created the close of the New Palace, north of the main avenue, situated building as a counterpart to the built in one axis south of the avenue Temple of Friendship. Since 1921, the Antikentempel is used as a mausoleum for members of the House of Hohenzollern and is not accessible to the public.

  • 2.1 External design
  • 2.2 interior design

History

Museum

As the picture gallery in the park of Sanssouci, also of the Ancient Temple from the beginning was designed as a museum and was at the time of Frederick the Great, after registration with the castellan of the New Palace, the public. In addition to dozens of antique objects cabaret, such as marble urns, bronze statues, tools, weights and ceramics, found ten life-sized marble statues on marble pedestals formation, the so-called family of Lycomedes. She earned Frederick the Great from the art collection of the French Cardinal Melchior de Polignac. At fifty gilded consoles busts in marble, basalt and bronze were placed, of which thirty-one also came from the Polignac's collection. The other came from the Bayreuth stock of antique enthusiasts favorite sister of Frederick, Wilhelmina, to Potsdam. A side cabinet, which could only be entered through a doorway from the main circular room, served to accommodate the purchased coin and gem collection in the possession of Baron Philipp von Stosch. Four cedar closets were filled with about 9200 gold, silver and bronze coins, about 4370 gems and cameos, 48 marble, terracotta and bronze relief parts, as well as books from the archaeological library of Frederick the Great.

. Friedrich Wilhelm III, the reigning king from 1797 to the Prussian throne, decreed in a cabinet order dated 1 September 1798 ".... for the carriage of the study of antiquities and art ... the collection of medals and antiques in the Antique Temple in Potsdam to unite with the similar collections in Berlin and to entrust the Academy of Sciences, ... " the coins and gem collection came into the cabinet of antiquities of the Berlin palace in the same year. The remaining sculptures, Napoleon after the defeat of Prussia by Napoleon's army at Jena and Auerstedt in 1806 and the subsequent French occupation bring as booty to France. Except for a relief they returned back to Prussia in 1815, and came to a restoration in the workshop of the sculptor Christian Daniel Rauch in 1830 opened the Berlin Altes Museum.

Memorial for Queen Luise

After the Ancient temple had stood empty for several years, made ​​him King Friedrich Wilhelm III. transform into a memorial for the deceased on July 19, 1810 Queen Louise. Where the second version of a designed by Christian Daniel Rauch sarcophagus was set up in June 1828 the smoke had made ​​in 1815 and whose original is in the mausoleum in the Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin.

By 1904 remained the second version of the sarcophagus in Ancient temple and arrived in the autumn of the year in 1877, opened to the public Hohenzollern Museum of the destroyed in the Second World War the castle Monbijou in Berlin. This version is now in the Friedrichswerder church.

Remodeling plans under William II

In the reign of William II plans for the use of ancient temple were created as a court chapel. The architect Ernst Eberhard von Ihne made ​​several sketches. The first of 1904/ 05 provided for a transformation in the style of the Italian High Renaissance. 1913 series are drawings with an interior design in the style of classicism. By other construction projects and the outbreak of the First World War, the project was not realized.

Even an order of 1918, the building prepare to be a tomb for the imperial dominions, was never carried out. Nevertheless, Empress Auguste Viktoria, according to their desire, buried on April 19, 1921 in Ancient temple, which was to the 1940s for other members of the House of Hohenzollern to the last resting place.

Mausoleum of Hohenzollern

Five members of the House of Hohenzollern found in Antikentempel their final resting:

  • Joachim of Prussia ( * December 17, 1890; † July 18, 1920 )
  • Auguste Viktoria, born Princess of Schleswig -Holstein -Sonderburg- Augustenburg (* October 22, 1858, † April 11, 1921 )
  • Wilhelm of Prussia ( * July 4, 1906, † May 26 1940 )
  • Eitel Friedrich of Prussia ( * July 7, 1883; † December 8, 1942 )
  • Hermine of Reuss L. similar and related products. of Schoenaich - Carolath, Princess of Prussia ( born December 17, 1887 † August 7, 1947 )

Architecture

External design

The unadorned building is a closed circular temple, which is surrounded by ten Tuscan columns ( Tholos ). The inner diameter of the rotunda ( rotunda ) is about 16 meters. The surface mounted (Annex ) on the back of the building measuring 9.40 x 9.40 meters. It is equipped with three windows. The domed roof is crowned by a lantern, from which four transverse oval window openings light falls in the central space. Due to the single access, a round-arched, four-meter high entrance door, which there is a staircase, the building can be entered. A rectangular gable above the cornice emphasizes the front side of the Rotunda.

Interior design

The wall of the rotunda was covered with gray Silesian marble. On a still existing, circulating Konsolbank of wood were larger sculptures and vessels. In addition to three floors, on fifty consoles, antique busts. A marble Supra Port Relief " Emperor Trajan on horseback " decorates in a gilded Framing also still the wall area above the front door. In addition to the tombs of the imperial family also stands a marble statue of the Empress Auguste Victoria in the room. The sculptor Carl Bega created the monument in 1904 for the Rose Garden of the Empress at the New Palace. A faded painting inside the lantern shows genii in the clouds, holding a flower garland. The wall surfaces of cultivation, which is reached by a round-arched door of the rotunda are, with wood paneling ( wood paneling ).

Pictures of Antique Temple

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