Favorite Palace was built based on the plans of Michael Ludwig Rohrer (1683–1732), a Bohemian architect whom Margravine Sibylla Augusta von Baden-Baden named her royal architect in 1707. Many of the rooms Rohrer created, such as the garden hall at Rastatt Favorite Palace, still display a very special charm.
Schlackenwerth Palace and garden, Johann Michael Sockh, 1716.
Like Sibylla Augusta, Rohrer was from Bohemia. His father worked as a master carpenter and fountain master at Schlackenwerth Palace, the margravine's childhood home. Her husband, Ludwig Wilhelm, is said to have strongly urged the father to instruct his sons in nothing other than the architectural arts. Michael Ludwig may have also received instruction from famous architect Christoph Dientzenhofer.
The Margraviate of Baden-Baden, destroyed in 1689, required a great deal of work, such as the construction of the new residence in Rastatt. So the Rohrer family moved. As of 1707, Michael Ludwig Rohrer designed all important buildings commissioned by Sibylla Augusta. Favorite Palace and the palace church in Rastatt were his two largest projects. In the residential city, however, this also included the Einsiedeln chapel and the pagoda castle, a small garden pavilion.
The sala terrena, or garden hall, Rastatt Favorite Palace.
Rohrer frequently used octagonal shapes in his structures. The octagonal, several story high sala terrena, Favorite Palace's garden hall, was inspired by the garden at Schlackenwerth Palace. The hermitage in the Favorite Palace garden, the pagoda castle and the hunting lodge in Baden-Baden are also octagonal, hexagonal or similar. Rohrer also chose this shape for the hermitage in Waghäusel, which was commissioned by Cardinal Damian Hugo von Schönborn.
Beginning in 1723, Rohrer worked on Bruchsal Palace and other buildings for Damian Hugo von Schönborn, the prince-bishop of Speyer and Sibylla Augusta's friend. However, the relationship between him and his employer was not great. In 1728, he returned to Sibylla Augusta. He expanded her dower house in Ettlingen, and died there in 1732. His younger brother, Peter Ernst Rohrer, became his successor, and went on to complete some of his plans.
Interested in learning more about the royal architect and his work? Groups can book the “Look behind the curtain” tour at Favorite Palace!
