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Orangery in Kuskovo, Moscow (1760s).

An Orangery was a building frequently found in the grounds of fashionable residences from the 17th to the 19th century. Similar to a greenhouse or conservatory. The name is derived from the original use of the building as a place where citrus trees were often grown in tubs and wintered under cover. The orangery originated from the Renaissance gardens of Italy, when glass-making technology enabled sufficient expanses of clear glass to be produced.

The Orangerie at the Palace of the Louvre, 1617, inspired imitations that were not eclipsed until the development of the modern greenhouse in the 1840s, which was quickly overshadowed by the architecture in glass of Joseph Paxton. Notable for his design of the Crystal Palace, his "great conservatory" at Chatsworth House was an orangery and glass house of monumental proportions.

The orangery, however, was not just a greenhouse but a symbol of prestige and wealth and a feature of the garden, in the same way as a summerhouse, folly or "Grecian temple". Owners would conduct their guests there on tours of the garden to admire not only the fruits within but the architecture without. Often the orangery would contain fountains, grottos, and an area in which to entertain in inclement weather.

Orangerie in Düsseldorf-Benrath

The Orangerieschloss built by Frederick William IV of Prussia in Potsdam in the mid-19th century, in imitation of the Italian Renaissance style^{[citation needed]}

The orangerie of the Royal Castle of Laeken (ca.1820) are the eldest part of the monumental Royal Greenhouses of Laeken.

• Château de Versailles
  • Versailles Orangerie
• Tuileries: Orangerie in the Tuileries Gardens, Paris
• Schönbrunn, Vienna
• Peterhof, Bolshaya Kamennya Oranzhereya )
• Tsarskoe Selo, Bolshaya Oranzhereya (1762, 1820)
• Kuskovo, Moscow, Oranzhereya (illustration, right)
• Potsdam, Orangerieschloss (illustration, above right)
• Laeken, Orangerie of the Royal Castle of Laeken (ca. 1820)
• Düsseldorf-Benrath, Orangerie
• Fulda, Orangerie
• Kassel, Orangerie

• Gera, Orangery and "Küchengarten"
• Strasbourg, park of the Orangerie
• Hannover, a part of the Herrenhausen Gardens
• Nynäs Slott, Manorial Estate (Castle) and Orangery, Nynäs, Sweden

The Orangery at Kensington Palace Gardens. It is now used as a restaurant

The orangery at Kennisgton Palace (1761) is the earliest surviving work there by Sir William Chambers. At 28 m (92 ft) long, it was the largest glasshouse in Britain when it was built. Though it was designed as an arcade with end pavilions to winter oranges, the light levels under its solid roof were too low for it to be successful.

• Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew: The Orangery

The Orangery at Margam Park, Wales, was built between 1787 and 1793 to house a large collection of orange, lemon and citron trees inherited by Thomas Mansel Talbot. The original house has been razed, but the surviving orangery, at 327 feet, is the longest one in Wales.

• Margam Park: Orangery

There is an orangery dating from about 1700 at Kenwood House in London.

In the United States the earliest surviving orangery is at the Tayloe house in Mount Airy, Virginia, but today it is an overgrown ruin. A ruined orangery can also be seen at the gardens Eyre Hall in North Hampton County, Virginia.

A more interesting, and extant, early 18th century orangery can be seen at the Wye Plantation, near Tunis Mills (Easton), Maryland. This orangery sits behind the main house and consists of a large open room with two smaller wings added at some point after the initial construction. The south-facing wall consists of large triple-hung windows. A second story was added as a billiards room, according to the current resident, Ms. Tilghman, a descendent of the Lloyd family. This plantation is also notable as having been the home of Frederick Douglass as a young slave boy. The orangery is described in the book Glass Houses, as is the orangery at the Tayloe house.

Ms. Tilghman notes that plants are still stored inside the building in winter, but a frame has been constructed to hold the houseplants, and the whole of the frame is covered with plastic to keep in moisture. In this way, the plants do not have to be watered through the entire winter.

• Mary Woods, Glass Houses: A History of Greenhouses, Orangeries and Conservatories 1996

• A longer history of the Orangerie
• A history of the Orangeries
• HARDWOOD ORANGERIES AND CONSERVATORIES