Margaret Taylor, our Centre Manager shared her European travels with the Garden Group in August. The talk ranged from Sanssouci Palace Gardens, to Heidelberg Castle Gardens and finally Dunvegan Castle Gardens.
Friedrich the Great was renowned for his modesty, saying “A crown is merely a hat that lets the rain in”. With considerable personal discipline, he guided the fate of Prussia in the eighteenth century. As shown above the spreading park and grounds, with the stately Neues Palais (New Palace), the Neue Kammern (New Chambers), the Chinese House, Orangery, and the Charlottenhof Palace, are impressive and beautiful. Friedrich wanted to be interred there in a crypt on the uppermost terrace of the vineyard, close to his much-loved greyhounds were buried. But it was many years before this wish was granted – not until his reburial there in 1991. Now, the “Philosopher of Sanssouci”, as he was popularly known, is at peace on the highest terrace of the hill. His gravestone bears the epitaph: “Quand je serai là, je serai sans souci” (When I shall be there, I shall be without a care).