Park Wörlitz

An impressive English-style landscaped garden

“Here is now infinitely beautiful. […] The bush is in its most beautiful youth, and the whole thing has the purest loveliness …”, wrote Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in 1778 about the then completely new Wörlitzer Park. Visitors to the unique landscape garden are as enthusiastic as the poet prince to this day.

Prince Leopold III Friedrich Franz von Anhalt-Dessau had the oldest park built on the English model on the European mainland from 1765 onwards. But this is only a first step: just a few years later, the Wörlitzer Schloss, the founding building of German Classicism, was built. It was inaugurated in March 1773. The court composer of Prince Franz, Friedrich Wilhelm Rust, wrote his own cantata.

Other neo-Gothic and neo-classical buildings followed, making the Wörlitzer Park a showpiece of a comprehensive programme to improve and beautify life. In the spirit of the Enlightenment, this idea spreads from the laboratory of the small Principality of Anhalt-Dessau to the whole of Europe. Soon the Wörlitzer Park will become a pilgrimage destination and a model to be emulated. Prince Franz created his own England on 700 square kilometres – as a counter-project to militaristic Prussia.

The starting point for the architecture of the Wörlitz Park, which was conceived by the Prince with his friend architect Erdmannsdorff and the gardeners Eyserbeck and Schoch, was the “English Seat. ” The park, which was created over the course of 35 years, included not only gardens and buildings, but also fruit growing, agriculture and livestock breeding.
The useful and the pleasant should come together here.

This is based on Prince Franz’s educational goal of opening the facilities to all citizens right from the start. It has remained that way to this day. In the sense of a miniature world with 17 bridges from all over the world, delightful gardens, temples, caves and other architectures, the park invites you to travel back in time. The five parts of the garden are connected by a sophisticated system of visual relations, paths and channels. At the beginning and end of the visual axes are buildings, sculptures and plantations. The view is guided into the distance in a meaningful and purposeful manner. Garden and buildings are maintained, renovated and restored to this day.

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Park Wörlitz

Park tours

Um den Wörlitzer Park und seine Philosophie der Entstehung kennenzulernen, empfehlen wir eine Parkführung.

Public park tours

April to October daily 13:00

  • Erwachsene: 8,00 €
  • Gäste mit Kurkarte: 7,00 €
  • Kinder, Schüler, Studenten: 3,00 €
  • Familienkarte: Erwachsene zahlen den regulären Preis (8 €), Kinder sind frei
(alle Preise zzgl. 0,50 € pro Fährüberfahrt)
  • Treffpunkt: ist vor dem Küchengebäude (Schlossseite).
  • Dauer: 2 bis 2,5 Stunden

Tickets are available at the Gartenreich Information or online.

Guided tours for groups

with pre-registration

(alle Preise ohne Fähren)

Dauer: 2 Stunden (Empfehlung)
Pauschalpreis bis 15 Personen                      90,00 €
jede weitere Person                                            6,00 €
ermäßigt                                                                 3,00 €

Dauer: 3 Stunden
Pauschalpreis bis 15 Personen                      120,00 €
jede weitere Person                                              8,00 €
ermäßigt                                                                   5,00 €

Dauer: 1 Stunde (nur Schlossgarten)
Pauschalpreis bis 15 Personen                       60,00 €
jede weitere Person                                             4,00 €
ermäßigt                                                                  2,00 €

Thematische Führungen sowie Führungen in den Fremdsprachen englisch und französisch sind möglich.

Gotisches Haus

Gardener's apartment and princely residence

In contrast to Classicism, Neo-Gothicism, the second prominent architectural style in the Gartenreich Dessau-Wörlitz, is a commitment of Prince Franz to his own tradition and history. One of the highlights of this connection is the Gothic House, which was an architectural avant-garde at the time, just like Schloss Wörlitz.

GASTHOF
„ZUM EICHENKRANZ“

A city portal for the Gartenreich

With the sophisticated inn “Zum Eichenkranz” Prince Franz had built a gatehouse that would have honoured every metropolis. Viewed from the outside, it is the entrance to the city from the inside a gateway to the Gartenreich.

Gondola rides

on the lakes and canals in Park Wörlitz

A gondola tour may be the highlight of a visit to Wörlitz. Anyone who has not seen the light on the canals themselves, who has not let the view wander from the lakes into the garden kingdom, lacks an essential experience.

Goethe’s enthusiastic letter – probably the most prominent Wörlitz fan – to Frau von Stein is legendary: “Here it is infinitely beautiful”, wrote the poet prince in 1778. “I was very moved last night, as we crept through the lakes, canals and woods, how the gods allowed the prince to create a dream around him. . . . ”

This dream has lost none of its fascination to this day. Experienced gondoliers, men and women alike, let heavy steel gondolas glide seemingly effortlessly, telling interesting and entertaining stories about the Gartenreich, while giving passengers a new view at every moment. Once the gaze sinks into the dark green, there suddenly appears a bright temple at the end of an axis of vision, around it a song of birds, a whisper of dragonflies. By the way, every gondola ride is a demonstration of bridge building, because bridges of all kinds and origins stretch over the canals as instructive patterns.

The tours can be enhanced to an experience that encompasses all the senses: culinary specialities on the gondolas and the popular sea concerts, where musicians appear here and there on the shore and perform a delightful serenade, while the evening sun is reflected in the water between pond roses. In addition to the gondolas, several ferries bring visitors across the lake.

A visit to the Wörlitzer Park offers unique impressions at any time of the year: in spring thousands of purple crocuses cover the meadows, and later rhododendrons create a magnificent sea of flowers. Fruit trees and magnolia bloom a delicate pink, shrubs and trees glow in every conceivable green colour – finally in the autumn in fiery red and yellow.

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Gondola rides

enjoy relaxed

A trip over Lake Wörlitz and through the canals, as Prince Franz already experienced, is still one of the most beautiful ways to discover the constantly changing landscape.

Gondola rides

April to October daily

April: full hour 11:00-15:00 o’clock
May to September: 10:00-17:00
October: full hour 10:00-15:00 o’clock

Adult: 10,00
reduced: 9,00

Discounts:

  • for groups of 15 persons or more
  • Students up to 25 years of age, apprentices, unemployed, severely handicapped (accompanying person free), holders of honorary office cards of the city of Dessau-Roßlau
  • Children up to 16 years free when accompanied by an adult (except gondolas, ferries, holiday program and children’s birthdays)
  • Guided tour for groups of pupils 1. 50 per person (max. 3 accompanying persons)

Gondola rides with catering

with pre-registration

May to September 10:00-17:00
this year only Monday to Friday
130,00 /hour (max. 12 pers. /gondola)
Extension hour 95,00
plus. Price for coffee, food, beverages
Booking under info@welterbe-gartenreich.de

May to September 10:00-17:00
this year only Monday to Friday
130,00 /hour (max. 12 pers. /gondola)
Extension hour 95,00
plus. Price for food and beverages
Booking under info@welterbe-gartenreich.de