"Kaiserin Augusta Anlagen Coblentz Aug 9th 1875"
The 3.5-kilometer-long Rhine embankments on the left bank of the Rhine consist of the Konrad Adenauer-Ufer and the Kaiserin-Augusta-Anlagen.
The Empress Augusta Gardens, the southern part of the Rhine Gardens, were designed between 1856 and 1861 on behalf of Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, the wife of Emperor Wilhelm I, by the brilliant Prussian master gardener Peter-Joseph Lenné (Sanssouci, Peacock Island and many more) according to plans by Hermann Prince von Pückler-Muskau. In 1902, twelve years after Augusta's death, the second section of the Rhine Gardens - today's Konrad Adenauer Bank - was built from the Electoral Palace to the Deutsches Eck. The Rhine Gardens were redesigned as part of the 2011 Federal Garden Show. A magnificent riverside boulevard has been created, lined with important sights and inviting for a stroll.
In the course of their approximately 200-year history, the Rhine embankments have shown a very varied appearance. Its origins lie in the French period when the city's first public park was created on the initiative of Prefect Adrien de Lezay-Marnésia. It was also a botanical garden because this new science fascinated many people at the time.
From 1855, Princess Augusta - supported by Peter Joseph Lenné - had a new park created, which was richly equipped with pavilions, sculptures, fountains, and terraces. As a place of encounter, relaxation, and education for the citizens, the Rhine Gardens were also intended to serve social peace and ties to the Prussian royal family.
The new planning after the Second World War under Garden Director Wilhelm Mutzbauer was characterized by wide meadows with a few trees and asymmetrical shapes. In this way, he created a light and open atmosphere, which is typical of the 1950s. As different as the tastes of the times were, the staging of the landscape always remained the essential design principle. This was again the leitmotif when the Rhine gardens were renovated and partially redesigned for the BUGA 2011. A striking example of this is the spacious riverside staircase in front of the castle with a view of the Rhine panorama.
Mary Keightley (1854-1946) was the youngest daughter of Archibald Keightley (1795-1877), executor of Sir Thomas Lawrence’s estate. She was a good amateur artist. Archibald Keightley (1795-1877), who was a solicitor who was the executor for Sir Thomas Lawrence, who had died earlier in 1830. Mr Keightley was responsible for the sale of Sir Thomas's collections, some of which were not paid for! There is a very interesting story about Sir Thomas's collection of old master drawings which were part of the assets Mr Keightley hadto dispose of. Following his work as a solicitor, Mr Keightley a few years later became the Registrar for the Charterhouse School, where he remained for 39 years.
Mary Keightley was born in 1854, in Charterhouse, Middlesex, England, United Kingdom, her father, Archibald Keightley, was 58 and her mother, Sarah Elizabeth Yates, was 41. She lived in London, England for about 20 years and Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, United Kingdom in 1891. She died on 20 April 1946, in Camberley, Surrey, England, United Kingdom, at the age of 93.