The Bitter Orange Garden (Pomeranzengarten) planted below Leonberg Palace is a jewel of a very special kind; it is one of the few terraced gardens with a structure preserved from the Renaissance period. When the Duke's widow Sibylla of Württemberg, born Anhalt-Zerbst-Bernburg (1564-1614), moved into Leonberg palace in 1609, the renowned court architect Heinrich Schickhardt (1558-1635) was commissioned not only to redecorate the palace in the current prevailing taste, but also to lay out a pleasure garden.
The Duchess, wife of Friedrich I of Württemberg, who was interested in botany and medicine, had already been mistress of a garden is Stuttgart that was famous throughout the Empire. As a result, her son Johann Friedrich had a "royal pleasure garden complete with a bitter orange house and a fountain box" laid out in Leonberg according to the Italian model in accordance with his mother's ideas.
A rectangular terrace with a double flight of stairs leading down into the valley was laid out on the southern side below the palace. The pleasure garden therefore lies perpendicular in front of the palace with a center axis related to it. Four small, pavilions with a pyramid roof similar to fortified towers mark its corners. A broad path lined by balustrades surrounds the garden and a hexagonal fountain system with an obelisk executed by the Leonberg stonemason Hans Josenhans, which bears a dedication by Schickhardt to Duchess Sibylla, forms the heart of the garden complex.
Schickhardt adapted his original ideal plan to the situation by altering the square division common in the Renaissance to lateral rectangular shapes. With the geometrically structured raised beds surrounded with natural stone to preserve their shape, Schickhardt remained within the design traditions of his age.
The most valuable plant in the garden, which therefore also provided its name, was the bitter orange (Pomeranze), which was used in both the kitchen and the medicine cabinet at home. But the bitter orange was not only important for medical uses or due to the odor of its blossoms. It was considered a status symbol and, as the symbol for the golden apples of the Hesperides, represents the relationship to the antique garden of paradise.
The bitter oranges were planted in tubs and placed along the central axis of the garden in summer. For overwintering they were placed in a wooden bitter orange house on the upper terrace that could be dismantled again in warmer weather. This house was equipped with several stoves and windows fitted into the half-timbered structure on all sides to provide sufficient light and heat. The house has not been preserved and today a pergola is located where it once stood.
Up until 1613 another section of the land below the terrace was purchased for a tree and kitchen garden, which could be reached via the stairway. Three grotto niches were to be built under the flights of stairs, of which only the center niche with a fountain and figure niches on both sides was actually constructed. Work on the lower terrace may never have been completed, as Sibylla died in 1614.
With the division of the garden into a pleasure, fruit and kitchen garden, Schickhardt kept to the arrangement of a royal garden that applied up into the 18th century. The Bitter Orange Garden nevertheless differs in its layout from the design of German gardens of this age. In keeping with medieval traditions, these shut out the surrounding area. In Italian gardens, the palace, garden and landscape were combined to compose an artistic synthesis at that time. The modern form of the Bitter Orange Garden appears especially remarkable when seen against this background.
The palace was no longer used as a royal residence after 1742. As a result, the Bitter Orange Garden deteriorated to a fruit and vegetable garden and became overgrown. It was not until the early 1970's that the foundations of the garden were rediscovered during clearing work. It was restored based on Schickhardt's original plans up until 1980. The fruit garden planted below the garden terrace and the kitchen garden planted next to the terrace were not restored, nor was the once richly appointed fountain grotto at the base of the staircase.
In 2009 the 400th anniversary of the garden will now be celebrated. Restoration and renovation work were once again carried out according to the latest archival findings for this purpose. The spatial limitation of the central axis between two pillars with obelisks is to be restored, and the balustrade framing of the staircases leading downward and the appointments of the grotto will also be renewed. In addition, new planting is planned so that rare and familiar plants grown for their fragrance, for use as spices and for medicinal purposes can be equally represented in the true sense of a Renaissance garden, i.e. as a combination of beauty, rarity and usability.