1846.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



161 



CHURCH AT SACROW NEAR POTSDAM. 

 ( With Two Engravings, Plates VII. and VIII.) 

 Of considerable merit in itself, the subject of our engravings this month 

 acquires additional interest from its being, besides the representation of an 

 actual building — one moreover of very recent date — a work of Persius's, the 

 present king of Prussia's architect, who died last summer. Relative to the 

 individual himself we are unable to add any particulars to our notice of his 

 death at page 348 of our last volume ; for besides that he is distinguished by 

 Naglerby being omitted in his tremendously comprehensive ' Kunster- Lexi- 

 con' — comprehending everybody who is of no note at all, — he is not given 

 in the ' Conversations-Lexicon der Gegenwart,' notwithstanding that several 

 German architects of the present day are there spoken of. Still we now know 

 something positively both as to what he executed and what he merely de- 

 signed; and sketches showing examples by him of both kinds have rather 

 exceeded than fallen at aU short of our expectations, for, to say the truth, 

 some remarks which we had met with led us to apprehend that his works 

 partook too much of flimsy showiness, of fantastic spielerei — as it was 

 termed — and of hurried sketchiness, without due consideration as to detail 

 and finish ; — a not uncommon fault among those who study composition and 

 general eflfects, while, on the other hand, those who are meritoriously atten- 

 tive to beauties of detail and execution are apt to be either very indifferent 

 to, or else negligent of, original composition and the character derived from it. 



The Church at Sacrow, — one of the numerous structures with which Per- 

 •ius embellished the environs at Potsdam, is both picturesque in itself, and 

 placed most picturesquely — even romantically, immediately on the Havel, 

 where that river expands into a lake, and just over against Prince Carl's 

 Park. We have before us a general " situations-plan," exhibiting the whole 

 environs of Sacrow, as far as the Heiliger See, the Marble Palace, and Pots- 

 dam in one direction (West), and the Pfauen-insel, and Griehnitz See, in the 

 other (East) ; which, map as it is, is also a picture, calling up images of 

 landscape scenery interspersed with sinuous lakes, and enlivened by architec- 

 ture — palatial residences, villas, casinos, bridges, belvederes, and what tanta- 

 lizes us by its name of the Maurische Tempel. To confine ourselves to the 

 Church of Sacrow itself, — it is charmingly placed — put just as a painter 

 would hare it, and perhaps just as a pedantic precedent-monger would not, 

 for the latter prefers the prosaic in architecture, and leaves all touches of 

 poetry in it to artist. architects. Taken merely by itself, the Church would 

 be more than ordinarily striking, not on account of situation md position, 

 alone, but for regularity and consistency of design, kept up throughout, since 

 so far from consisting chiefly of a show front, or making most show just at 

 that end, it captivates from every point of view, by its singular completeness, 

 and also by its originality, the external arcade being a happy innovation upon 

 the basilica character, from which class of ancient ecclesiastical buildings, 

 the style has been borrowed, — but also freely treated, with artistlike feeling, 

 and with many tasteful modifications — albeit the precedent gentry here may 

 shake their heads at them. The Church, however, is only one feature in an 

 architectural group, even the campanile only one of its accessaries; and that 

 tower, a graceful object in itself, contributes to variety in a very unusual de- 

 gree, inasmuch as by standing detached, it comes difl'erently into combination 

 with the main building, according to the direction in which they are viewed 

 together. Architectural ensemble is greatly promoted by the enclosed area 

 in front, a paved fore-court surrounded by a low parapet wall, partly forming 

 a terrace, above river. Independently of its effect in other respects, this 

 enclosure, simple as it is in character, is of great value, because it plainly 

 connects the campanile and church together. In our opinion, too, such well 

 expressed demarcation of site is a propriety which, notwithstanding our pre- 

 cise and affected scrupulousness in some matters of ecclesiastical architecture, 

 is frequently most strangely overlooked by us, for we have churches in coun- 

 try as well as towns, that seem to have fallen down/rowi heaven, alighting by 

 road-side or street-side just as chance might direct, without any sort of in- 

 terval or intermediate space between the secular and the ecclesiastical. Both 

 this fore-court and the external ambulatory around the church may look to 

 us like innovations ; yet the one and the other hold out hints to us well 

 worth adopting ; and the one and the other afl'ord excellent situations for 

 monuments, — the walls of the church, for instance, wiihin the arcade, might 

 in time be quite incrusted with marble in monumental tablets, — but unless 

 they were allowed only under proper restrictions — such as would ensure 

 general symmetry as to arrangement and size, and further, preserve some 

 keeping as to style, therefore nothing at all like the RagrtiDt post mortem ad- 

 Tertisements of quacks and charlatans which disgrace the Kensal Green Ceroe- 



No. 105.— Vol. IX.— June, 18-16. 



try, and render it at once disgusting, and ridiculous, — embellishment of the 

 kind would be only disfigurement. 



The church at Sacrow, begun in 1842, and completed in all but its inte- 

 rior decorations the following year, is of very economic materials, nearly 

 the whole of the exterior, excepting the columns of the arcade, which are 

 of stone, being only of brick, nevertheless very ornamental, every four 

 courses of the general brickwork being relieved by two others of coloured 

 bricks (as shown in fig. 4), and similar ones, with a figured pattern upon 

 them, form a sort of frieze or string-course just beneath the principal cor- 

 nice. The pavement within the arcade is also of bricks of various sizes, so 

 skilfully though simply disposed as to produce considerable richness of effect. 

 All the other details, including those of the two cornices (that of the body 

 of the church, and that over the arcade), are carefully studied, and manifest 

 much clever invention as well as good taste. These minutiae and pecuUari- 

 ties are, however, lost in drawings on the scale of those herewith given; 

 wherefore it becomes necessary to observe that the capitals (fig. 3, plate Vlll.) 

 of the columns are also of novel design — partaking of Grecianism in taste, 

 though quite dissimilar from Grecian examples, — without the name of a new 

 order being therefore arrogated, even thought of, for them. 



The interior of the church is sparingly, but tastefully, decorated : the 

 walls are wainscoted for about the height of seven feet, and above that, are 

 coated in imitation of pale green marble, whereby, at the same time, that 

 offensive raw blankness of surface is avoided, the fresco-painting in the 

 large altar or chancel tribune (designed by Professor Begas, and representing 

 Christ and the four Evangelists,) is made to tell more effectively. The ceil- 

 ing shows the timbers of the roof, which are partly relieved by colours, 

 while the intermediate spaces are filled in with stars on a cobalt blue ground. 

 The pavement forms a sort of mosaic work of three colours (dark green, 

 dark red, and black) on a general ground of a pale reddish hue. The metal- 

 work for the glazing of the windows is of ornamental pattern, the effect of 

 which is heightened by some intermixture of coloured and ground glass ; 

 and it should be, remarked, that if they do not exactly constitute what we 

 should call a clerestory, there is only one tier of windows in the upper part 

 of the walls. 



Taken altogether, the church at Sacrow will, we think, recommend Per- 

 sius as one who thought for himself, and could seize upon and turn to ac- 

 count such points as opportunity and subject afl'orded him. For our owq 

 part, «e like it very much better than some of Scbinkel's designs for 

 churches on about the same scale, which, to say the truth, are in a somewhat 

 cramped and affected style, owing, perhaps, in great measure, to his deviating 

 too far from, and yet keeping too close to, Greek orthodoxy. The sketch of 

 another church by Persius, since erected at Sans Souci, shows a somewhat 

 similar design, exclusive of the external arcade ; yet, though the church 

 itself is so far plainer than that at Sacrow, it forms only a portion of a 

 widely-extended architectural assemblage of various buildings (some of them 

 erected), all so happily brought together as to form quite a Poussin-like 

 scene. His talent for combination, and his predilection for extending archi- 

 tectural accessories for some distance around the main building, so as to 

 blend natural and artificial objects into one captivating tableau, are forcibly 

 manifested in a design by him for altering a villa residence, which he has 

 distributed in the most piquant masses, prominent among which is a noble 

 belvedere tower (circular in plan), so placed as to form not only an adjunct 

 to, but an object from, the mansion. This design, it appears, was intended 

 for some place in the neighbourhood of San-Souci ; whether it has been 

 carried into execution we know not ; but if the environs of San-Souci an 

 Potsdam have been embellished in other instances by Persius, in a manner 

 and taste at all similar, they must present some very charming architectural 

 pictures, and we heartily wish that some such artist as Allom would visit 

 — with quantum sat of drawing paper — Berlin and Potsdam — or, we might 

 say, discover and explore them, for they seem to be utterly unknown to Eng. 

 lish artists. 



We regret that we are unable to specify with tolerable certainty any other 

 of the various buildings on which Persius was employed for some years pre- 

 vious to his death, and which, whatever their faults may be, no doubt dis- 

 play considerable power of fancy and warmth of imagination. It has, 

 indeed, been said of him that he sacrificed too liberally to picturesque eflFect, 

 yet, in an artistic point of view, that ought hardly to be made a reproach, 

 provided the effect aimed at was really secured. Here, we frequently sacri- 

 fice a great deal in the shape of cost, without getting any return at all for 

 it in the shape of art. 



Before we lay down our pen, we may as well mention that we have^now 

 ascertained the exact date of Persius's death, viz., July 121b, 1845t. 



21 



