Summer Palace in Greiz

State Collection of Books and Copper Engravings

The Summer Palace in Greiz, built from 1769 to 1779, is considered one of the earliest examples of classical architecture in Thuringia. It is surrounded by the Greiz Landscape Park, whose history dates back to about 1650. Both the Summer Palace and the park were classified as "nationally significant" by the Federal Ministry of Culture and Media in 2009.

History of the Summer Palace

The Summer Palace served as the summer residence of the Princes of Reuß of the Elder Line until the First World War. In 1922, following a settlement with the Princely House, a new art museum, "the Foundation of the Elder Line of the House of Reuß", was able to open in the Greiz Summer Palace. Since then, the Summer Palace has housed the art treasures of the Greiz State Collection of Books and Copper Engravings and, since 1975, also the Greiz Satiricum, a caricature collection of nationwide significance.

The book collection is, in its essential part, a planned foundation of Count Heinrich XI of Obergreiz (1722 - 1800, ennobled 1778) from the time around 1747. The princely Copper Engraving Collection includes about 7000 battle plans, maps, and city views, as well as numerous prints.
The Summer Palace owes the most valuable part of the Copper Engraving Cabinet to the estate of the English Princess Elizabeth (1770 - 1840). Among the thousands of copper engravings, about 900 English mezzotints are particularly noteworthy, more than half of which were created after portraits by the portrait painter Joshua Reynolds.

Since the foundation of the Greiz State Collection of Books and Copper Engravings, the extensive holdings of books and prints have been expanded to include, among other things, a Chodowiecki collection, hand drawings, and a large collection of Dances of Death depictions. The Satiricum, founded in 1975, is a special collection of contemporary caricatures and press drawings from East Germany, and, with its special collection of almost 12,000 sheets, is one of the designated caricature museums. From 1980 to 1990, six biennials on caricature of the GDR took place in the Greiz Summer Palace. This tradition has been continued since 1994 with the nationwide triennial "Caricature, Cartoon and Comic Drawing Art".

In the Garden Hall and the Beletage, regularly changing exhibitions of the State Collection of Books and Copper Engravings and the Satiricum are shown. Concerts, readings and other cultural events are held in the Garden Hall and the Festival Hall during the summer.