Kamelienhaus (mobile glasshouse of the Pillnitz Camellia)

The Pillnitz camellia was planted in 1801 on its present site, west of the park's Orangery, by Carl Adolph Terscheck, then a journeyman gardener and later court gardener. According to the Saxon palaces administration, the shrub was probably already more than thirty years old. A legend reported by Wikipedia makes it one of the camellias that Carl Peter Thunberg is said to have brought from Kyoto to Kew in 1776.

At first it was protected in winter with straw and bast mats, then with a heated wooden house. On 3 January 1905 overheating set this shelter on fire; the plant survived because the water used to fight the fire froze around it into a protective shell. A new half-timbered shelter followed, with its heating housed in an annex on the north side. When it became dilapidated after the Second World War it was replaced by a larger twelve-sided structure with windows reaching up to the roof, already foreshadowing the present building; the 2025 press release speaks instead of a demountable octagonal wooden house used until the mid-twentieth century, followed by a steel-and-glass structure from the GDR period.

The present house was planned from 1987 under the direction of the architect Peter Staufenbiel. The contract went to Maschinen- und Stahlbau Dresden GmbH on 9 August 1991, the foundation stone was laid on 24 March 1992 and the structure was handed over on 2 October that year. In May 2025 the International Camellia Society gave the shrub the title of 'Historic Camellia', the first such award for a German plant.

The camellia house is a steel-and-glass structure designed to move. It stands 13.20 m high with an outer diameter of 14.35 m, weighs 54 tonnes and encloses 1,864 m³ of air. It rests on four running gears with eight rollers in all, travelling on two rails; German Wikipedia gives the track a gauge of 10.80 m, so that the shrub grows between the two lines of rail.

From October to May the house covers the camellia; in spring it is rolled along its rails and parked beside the plant (in 2018 this happened on 17 May), and the shrub spends the summer in the open air. When closed it keeps a controlled cool climate: 5 °C and 60 per cent humidity according to the park staff, 4 to 6 °C according to other sources. Hot-water heating and a climate computer automatically regulate temperature, ventilation, air humidity and shading. The park administration stresses how bright the shelter is, protecting the plant from the cold without depriving it of light while it forms and opens its flowers.

The house holds a single plant, but one of rare size: a Japanese camellia (Camellia japonica) more than 250 years old, measured in 2023 at 8.94 m high, with a crown 11.90 m across and 37.38 m round, and a trunk 2.22 m in girth. A Dresden magazine describes it as the largest and oldest of its kind north of the Alps, and English Wikipedia counts it among the oldest in Europe.

Between mid-February and mid-April it is covered in tens of thousands of flowers, up to 35,000 according to Wikipedia: single, bell-shaped, carmine-red blooms without scent. This late-winter flowering, which earned the shrub the title of 'Historic Camellia' in 2025, is the time when the glasshouse opens its doors to visitors.

The camellia house stands in the park of Pillnitz Palace on the Elbe, west of the Orangery and a short walk from the Palmenhaus of 1859-1861, with which it shares a ticket. It opens to visitors during the flowering season; in 2025 daily opening began on 1 March. The visit to the house itself is short, but it combines well with a walk through the park and a stop at the neighbouring Palmenhaus. In summer the house is parked on its rails beside the shrub, which can then be seen in the open air.