SCHINKEL'S MONTSERRAT

In which the human being, entirely alone on his own Montserrat, can find peace and happiness.

J.W. GOETHE 'Sämmtliche Werke' (1836)

Recently the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz (Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation) has put online the entire collection of K.F. Schinkel's graphic work. So, one fine day, while procrastinating, I ended up discovering two images with the title of Eisenbergwerk in Katalonien (Iron mine in Catalonia): an exterior view where a limestone relief very similar to Montserrat is intuited, and an interior view which is like a hybrid of the prisons of Piranesi and the caves of Collbató or Salnitre. I immediately checked to see if Schinkel had ever been to Montserrat. But, reviewing his entire travel history, I can state that it is impossible. So who could have talked about Catalonia and its sacred mountain to the Prussian architect? There is only one possibility: Wilhelm von Humboldt, his protector at the Court of Frederick William III of Prussia.

In fact, Humboldt visited Montserrat in 1800 for two days. His ascension is evoked in the poem Die Geheimnisse (The Mysteries), written in 1784 by his friend J.W. Goethe. A poem where Goethe tells us about a pilgrim who climbs a mountain where there is a monastery inhabited by hermits. Just like Montserrat back then. On his return to Paris, still shocked by the experience, Humboldt began to write a letter, in the form of an essay, to his friend, which he did not publish until three years later, in the Allgemeine geographische Ephemeriden, entitled “Der Montserrat, bey Barcelona”. Curiously, the same year when Humboldt and Schinkel, during his stay in Rome, met in person.

K.F. Schinkel 'Eisenbergwerk in Katalonien. Außenansicht' (1815)

In this letter, Humboldt exposes a fascination with the mountain, above all, from a geographical, but also from an aesthetic, point of view. The harmony between man and nature stands out. An almost edenic harmony. Although he pays more attention to the hermits than to the monastery itself. According to him, the hermits show us, in their understanding with nature, that a life in harmony is possible. They represent a place in arcadian life. They are like the good savage of Rousseau. They meditate and find inner peace through pure contemplation. Thus, Montserrat is seen as an earthly paradise. As a return to simplicity, self-sufficiency and peace of mind. As an experience understood as an initiatory journey. But, in the whole essay, he does not tell us anything about its caves.

So how come did Schinkel become aware of its existence? Perhaps because of the French politician, archaeologist and traveler Alexandre de Laborde. Between 1794 and 1797, at the time of the French Revolution, Laborde discovered the mountain and, unlike Humboldt, visited its caves. In fact, in the first volume of his “Voyage pittoresque et historique de l'Espagne”, published in 1806 and dedicated entirely to Catalonia, he includes a detailed description of Montserrat which also includes two engravings, on his own words, of its beautiful stalactite caves.

K.F. Schinkel 'Eisenbergwerk in Katalonien. Innenansicht' (1815)

“This Saturday my Christmas piece, a big old iron mine in Catalonia, will be opened and shown during the Christmas market, from 6 a.m. daily throughout the evening, in my theater at 43 Französische Straße”. With this announcement, at the Berlinischen Nachrichten on December 16th, 1815, Wilhelm Ernst Gropius (Karl Wilhelm Gropius's father) promoted the presentation of these two eminently Montserratian Schaubilder (dioramas with musical accompaniment and human figures and animals) designed by Schinkel. From 1807 to 1815, Schinkel himself worked mainly in the design of panoramas and dioramas for Gropius' optical-mechanical theater until the death of Paul Ludwig Simon, when he was promoted to Geheimer Oberbaurat (private construction adviser). Five years earlier, however, Humboldt had already nominated him for the post of Geheimer Oberbauassessor (private construction consultant) of the Preußischen Oberbaudeputation (Prussian Construction Council).

POMONA'S TEMPLE

K.F. Schinkel 'Entwurf für den Pomonatempel bei Potsdam' (1800)

Karl Friedrich Schinkel, on the death of Friedrich Gilly, left the Bauakademie in order to complete his master's unfinished projects. During this period, the young Schinkel, only nineteen years old, received his first commission. The still almost unknown Temple of Pomona in Potsdam. A pavilion in the gardens of the Pfingstberg, then Judenberg, owned by the wife of the cartographer and privy councillor Carl Ludwig von Oesfeld.

Richard Peter 'Pomonatempel am Pfingstberg, Vorderfront' (1945)

In the 18th century, the Pfingstberg was a land planted with vineyards which was later transformed into a garden. In fact, there had already been a small building, intended for leisure, with the same name. In honor of the Roman goddess, with no Greek equivalent or feast on the calendar, Pomona: patrona pomorum, lady of fruits. But not only of fruits but, by extension, of fruit trees and the hortus, during its cropping and also flowering.

'Pomonatempel auf dem Pfingstberg' (1981)

Schinkel, however, located his small temple on a higher site than the previous one. To be able to enjoy a magnificent panoramic view, he turned the roof into a roof, accessible from a back staircase. In a way, it could be said that this first work, a simple prostyle with its four ionic order columns, foreshadows elements that we can find in other projects, subsequent to his trip to Italy. Such as the Mausoleum for Queen Louise in Charlottenburg, or the Neue Wache in Unter den Linden.

Leo Seidel 'Der Pomonatempel heute' (2020)

Years later, between 1847 and 1863, the gardener and landscape architect Peter Joseph Lenné was commissioned by Frederick William IV of Prussia to design a Belvedere on the same site, which is now part of the Neuer Garten. Lenné decided to keep the Temple and decided to incorporate it into his garden. But what he could not avoid was that, after 1945, the temple would be abandoned and turned, paradoxically, into a real romantic ruin. But it has finally been rebuilt, though with a rather dubious aesthetic criterion.