A knightly water palace in Schwetzingen is documented for the first time in 1350. It consisted of a small complex with a keep surrounded by a wall on an island in the Leimbach river. The owners, the Schomberg family, had made the palace available to the palgrave Ruprecht.
His successors methodically purchased property in Schwetzingen and enlarged the area with a garden, which was later to become the point of origin of the large park. Over the subsequent centuries the palace served the Palatinate Court as a hunting seat.
In the Thirty Years' War the palace, which was further expanded under Elector Ludwig V von der Pfalz (1508-1544), was devastated and rebuilt. In 1689 this palace also went up in flames in the Palatinate-Orleans War. However, under Elector Johann Wilhelm it was quickly rebuilt again, being completed in 1701. From 1711 to 1713, with the addition of the "Communs-Bauten" (Communs Buildings) toward the town, the palace was given the character of a more modern three-wing complex around a court of honor.
In the years that followed the garden was also redesigned under Elector Carl Philipp (1661-1742) and closed in a broad semicircle with an Orangery in 1718. Despite this, the Elector soon neglected the electoral summer residence in favor of his ambitious palace project in Mannheim.
It was Carl Theodor (1724-1799) who finally devoted himself to the palace again and launched into great building activity: As a replacement for the decayed Orangery he had the northern "Zirkelbau" (Quarter-Circle Building) of the palace added.
A theater, which was built onto the northern "Zirkelbau", also found its place there. The southern "Zirkelbau" with rooms for social gatherings was constructed as a counterpart.
The simple, older palace building was retained, although new projects were repeatedly developed, e.g. a large star-shaped building in the center of the present garden parterre. Renown architects of the age, such as Pigage, Rabaliatti and Baltasar Neumann, contributed their suggestions, but none of these were ever realized.
However, the gardens experienced a large-scale redesign. The French-influenced garden complex resulted under the architect Nicolas de Pigage, and later under the garden architect Friedrich Ludwig Sckell the section of the garden inspired by English landscape gardens.
Diverse architectural elements adorn and structure the garden. The best-known are certainly the luxurious "Badhaus" (Bath House) of the Elector and the Mosque.