The Globe house
The globe was viewed as the gem in a splendid Italian-style terraced garden. It was housed in a Lusthaus [magnificent pavilion] which was built in 1650 and named after its builder Duke Friedrich III.
With three storeys, the elongated, cubic simple building structure had an impressive height. As also in favour of a roof terrace no inclined roof surfaces were used, the Lusthaus had an atypical look which is strange for the north.
The Friedrichsburg was just ready built in Spring 1654 as a shell construction and had to be reconstructed to accommodate the globe. The building only had a “short life” as the globe house. After the Northern War, Tsar Peter the Great requested the Gottorf Globe as a present in 1713 and the Globe house was broken open in order to enable the removal of the huge sphere. The gaping “wound” in the building was no longer closed and it decayed. Finally, the building was sold for demolition in 1768.
The reproduction – marked by modern architectural language
The new Globe house, built according to drafts by Hilmer & Sattler + Albrecht (Munich/ Berlin) is located precisely where Duke Friedrich III had his Friedrichsburg built. However, as opposed to the historic predecessor building, it is the first building to have been exclusively designed for presenting the Globe.
Consideration of the historic location, the historic architecture of the 17th century was very consciously picked up in the structure of the construction dimensions, in the facade relief and yes even in doing without an inclined roof and translated into modern-day architectural language. The huge windows in the Globe room make it possible for the first time to see the new Gottorf Globe from outside and to marvel at the magnificent depiction of the earth from the gardens.
The inclination of the Globe’s earth axis is 54.31 degrees, corresponding to Schleswig’s geographic degree of latitude. Similar to a map which is always depicted oriented to the north and hung up. a globe is structure so that its axis is as parallel as possible to the actual earth’s axis. Only then is it possible to align the globe so that the geographic location shown on the globe is located precisely at the uppermost point of the globe. Therefore, the observer sees the firmament inside the sphere just as he perceives the real sky over Schleswig.
