Orangerie (Hessen Kassel Heritage)

A house for laurel and orange trees

The bright yellow façade of the Orangery in Karlsaue park with its two corner pavilions can already be seen from a long distance away. Charles I, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel commissioned the Orangery to be built in the early 18th century. In the building in the middle, numerous orange and laurel trees are stored over the winter. Landgrave Charles and his wife used the two corner pavilions – the kitchen pavilion and the marble bathhouse – as well as the central "Apollo Hall" as a summer residence and a venue for festivities. In the 1760s, his grandson Landgrave Frederick observed the course of the moon and the planets through telescopes mounted on the Orangery roofs. It now houses Hesse´s largest planetarium.