Tycho Brahe specified the plan, the facade proportions and the garden layout of his observatory on the island of Ven. The Danish architect Hans van Emden and the sculptor Johan Gregor van der Schardt oversaw construction. The Danish state under Frederick II funded it, and it is described as one of the first observatories fully funded by a government. The cornerstone was laid on August 8, 1576, and building ran to about 1580.
The main building was about 49 feet (15 m) square, with semicircular towers on the north and south sides. It was brick framed with sandstone and limestone, in Flemish Renaissance style. Parterre gardens surrounded it. A planned wall 246 feet (75 m) on a side was never built, and an earth mound was raised instead.
Brahe left in 1597, and the institution was destroyed in 1601. Only the mound remains. The Tycho Brahe Museum, reachable by boat from Sweden and Denmark, incorporates the refurbished structures.
Comments