Temple Garden Neuruppin

Amalthea or Temple Garden
Built in 1732 by order of Crown Prince Friedrich (King Friedrich II), redesigned in Moorish style in 1853 by the Gentz merchant family; Temple of Apollo Knobelsdorff's first work

The temple garden is the foundation and scene of the leisure activities of a young crown prince who, at the age of 20, was appointed by his father as regimental commander based in Neuruppin in 1732. It is the same man who, 23 years later, was first dubbed “Frederick the Great” by his contemporaries and later secretly called “the Old Fritz”.

The temple garden was given its present form in 1853 by the Neuruppin merchant family Gentz. She acquired the area with the aim of restoring the garden to commemorate Friedrich's stay and to grant "public access to everyone". For the buildings, some of which were designed by Alexander Gentz himself, the family won over the then famous Orientalist architect Carl von Diebitsch. In the course of the great cultural encounter between the Orient and the European Occident in the 19th century, the protagonist of Arabic architecture designed the villa, the gardener's house with a stylized minaret, the entrance gates and surrounding walls, including a suggested bastion, in an orientalized form. For the decoration of the garden, Alexander Gentz acquired baroque sandstone sculptures, mostly from Dresden, and planted the garden with botanical specialties.
After the family's economic decline, the garden was sold to the Ruppin district in 1880. In 1910, the Zieten Museum, founded in 1865 at the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Gymnasium, moved into the Gentz'sche Villa. After that, the garden was cared for more, sometimes less. A café opened for the first time in Gentz'sche Villa in 1965. In 1969 the hall extension was added.

On August 1, 1995, the city of Neuruppin acquired the garden from the district of Ostprignitz-Ruppin for a symbolic amount. Since then, thanks to the efforts of the city and citizens - namely the Temple Garden Association - it has been possible to raise and improve the image of the complex sustainably and continuously. The legacy of the Gentz family, to preserve the garden, which they expanded into a gem of oriental architecture, to commemorate Friedrich's stay and to grant public access to everyone, is still considered obligatory by the city and its citizens. (Source: tempelgarten.de/geschichte/)

There is also a restaurant here