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Founded: 1770-1771Category: Palaces, manors and town halls in Germany
Historical period: Emerging States (Germany)
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Branitz Palace, a baroque residence in Cottbus, Brandenburg, was built in the 1770s and later redesigned by Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau. Located in Branitz Park near the city center, the palace is surrounded by themed gardens and is recognized as a listed architectural monument.
Originally built for Count August Heinrich von Pückler, the estate passed through the family until Hermann von Pückler-Muskau made it his home in 1845 after selling Muskau Castle. He began transforming the park into an English-style landscape garden and renovated the palace with Berlin architects. He lived there until his death in 1871 and was buried in the park’s lake pyramid.
After World War II, the property was nationalized and became a museum. It housed the Cottbus City and District Museums before evolving into today’s museum, showcasing Pückler’s life and art collections, including rooms restored to reflect his oriental interests. Since 1995, it has been managed by the Prince Pückler Museum Park and Palace Foundation and is part of the European Garden Heritage Network. Efforts are ongoing to add it to the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Adjacent buildings include the 18th-century stables, lavishly designed and now used for exhibitions, and the Kavaliershaus, once home to the court staff and now a restaurant. The estate farm, dating to the mid-1800s, housed livestock and was the operational hub for Pückler’s agricultural activities. The Park Forge, built in the 1850s and modeled on Babelsberg’s Little Palace, served as both a forge and gatehouse, and now holds museum archives. In total, the estate includes around 30 historic park buildings.
The Pilgrimage Church of Wies (Wieskirche) is an oval rococo church, designed in the late 1740s by Dominikus Zimmermann. It is located in the foothills of the Alps in the municipality of Steingaden.
The sanctuary of Wies is a pilgrimage church extraordinarily well-preserved in the beautiful setting of an Alpine valley, and is a perfect masterpiece of Rococo art and creative genius, as well as an exceptional testimony to a civilization that has disappeared.
The hamlet of Wies, in 1738, is said to have been the setting of a miracle in which tears were seen on a simple wooden figure of Christ mounted on a column that was no longer venerated by the Premonstratensian monks of the Abbey. A wooden chapel constructed in the fields housed the miraculous statue for some time. However, pilgrims from Germany, Austria, Bohemia, and even Italy became so numerous that the Abbot of the Premonstratensians of Steingaden decided to construct a splendid sanctuary.