Favorite Palace

Engraving of the Favorite Palace by Salomon Kleiner (1726)
The Favorite Palace by Christian Georg Schütz the Elder (1784)

The Favorite Palace (German: Lustschloss Favorite) (often simply called the Favorite) on the banks of the Rhine in Mainz was a significant Baroque palace complex in the Electorate of Mainz, featuring elaborate gardens and water features. The Favorite was built in several stages, starting in the year 1700. It was essentially completed around the year 1722. Its patron, Lothar Franz von Schönborn (1655–1729), Prince-elector of Mainz and Prince-Bishop of Bamberg, came from one of the most prominent Franconian-Middle Rhine noble families of the time, the Schönborn family, and was the patron of many Baroque gardens and palaces. The Lustschloss Favorite was completely destroyed during the Siege of Mainz in 1793 in the French Revolutionary Wars.

The model for the complex was the French palace of the Château de Marly of Louis XIV. The Favorite palace, with its further development of the formalistic early Baroque garden design in the style of the Palace of Versailles, is considered a model for many other gardens that emerged later in the subsequent late Baroque era of garden art.