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 based on the English model on the European mainland built after his trip to England in 1765. But this is only a first step: just a few years later, Schloss Wörlitz is the founding building of German classicism. It was inaugurated in March 1773. The court composer of Prince Franz, Friedrich Wilhelm Rust, writes his own cantata.

Further classicist and neo-Gothic buildings follow, making Park Wörlitz the showpiece of a comprehensive program to improve and beautify life. In the spirit of the Enlightenment, this idea radiates from the laboratory of the small Principality of Anhalt-Dessau to the whole of Europe. Soon Park Wörlitz became a pilgrimage destination and a role model to emulate. Prince Franz created his own England here on 700 square kilometers – as an alternative to militaristic Prussia.

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

Behind this is the Enlightenment educational goal of Prince Franz, to open the facilities to all citizens from the very beginning. That has remained the case to this day. In the sense of a miniature world with 17 bridges from all over the world, delightful garden paintings, temples, caves and other architectures, the park invites you to travel back in time. The five garden parts are connected by a sophisticated system of visual relationships, paths and canals. At the beginning and end of the visual axes are buildings, sculptures and plantings. Meaningful and unerring, the view is directed into the distance. The garden and building are maintained, renovated and restored to this day.

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PARK WÖRLITZ

Park tours

In order to get to know the Park Wörlitz and its philosophy of origin, we recommend a park tour.

Public park tours

April to October daily 13:00

  • Adults: 9,50 €
  • Guests with spa card: 8,50 €
  • Trainees, students 4,50
  • Children up to 16 years: free of charge
(all prices incl. ferry crossing)
  • Meeting point: is in front of the kitchen building (castle side).
  • Duration: 2 to 2.5 hours

Tickets are available at the Gartenreich Information or online.

Guided tours for groups

with pre-registration

(all prices without ferries)

Duration: 2 hours (recommended)
Package price up to 15 persons 90,00 €
each additional person 6,00 €
reduced 3,00

Duration: 3 hours
Package price up to 15 persons € 120.00
each additional person 8,00 €
reduced 5,00

Duration: 1 hour (only castle garden)
Package price up to 15 persons 60,00 €
each additional person 4,00 €
reduced 2,00

Thematic tours as well as guided tours in the foreign languages English and French are possible.

Gotisches Haus

Gardener's apartment and princely residence

In contrast to classicism, neo-Gothic as the second prominent architectural style in the Gartenreich Dessau-Wörlitz is a commitment of Prince Franz to his own tradition and history. The culmination of this bond is a Gothic house in Park Wörlitz, which in its time was just as much an architectural avant-garde as Schloss Wörlitz.

Haus der Fürstin

From retreat to exhibition centre

The Haus der Fürstin was once Princess Louise’s private retreat in Park Wörlitz. In contrast to the classicist stately home, the lilac building is a reception of Gothic architectural language. The 32-metre-long gallery inside is particularly impressive evidence of this.

INN
"ZUM EICHENKRANZ"

A city portal for the Garden Realm

With the sophisticated inn “Zum Eichenkranz”, Prince Franz had a gatehouse built that would have honoured any metropolis. Seen from the outside, it is the entrance to the city – from the inside a gateway to the garden kingdom.

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 Gartenreich, lacks an essential experience.

The enthusiastic letter of Goethe – 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 touched last night as we crept through the lakes, canals and groves, 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, tell interesting facts and entertaining facts about the Gartenreich, while a new view opens up to the passengers at every moment. Sometimes the view sinks into dark green, then suddenly a temple appears bright at the end of a line of sight, around it a polyhong of birds, a shimmering of dragonflies. Incidentally, every gondola ride is a demonstration of bridge construction, because bridges of various types and origins span over the canals as instructive patterns.

The tours can be further enhanced to a sensory experience: through culinary specialties on the gondolas and the popular lake concerts, where musicians appear here and there on the shore and perform a charming serenade, while the evening sun is reflected between pond roses in the water. In addition to the gondolas, several ferries also take visitors across the lake.

A visit to the Park Wörlitz offers its own impressions in every season: In spring, thousands of purple crocuses cover the meadows, later rhododendrons create a magnificent sea of flowers. Fruit trees and magnolias bloom in soft pink, shrubs and trees shine in all conceivable green colours – in autumn finally in fiery red and yellow.

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Gondola rides

enjoy relaxed

A trip over Lake Wörlitz and through the canals, as Experienced by Prince Franz, is still one of the most beautiful ways to discover the constantly changing garden pictures.

Gondola rides

April to October daily

April : on the hour 11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
May to September : 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
October : 11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Adult: 12,00 €
reduced: 10,00 €
Children and pupils: 3,00 €
Dog: 2,00 €

Discounts:

  • for groups of 15 people or more
  • Students up to 25 years, trainees, unemployed, severely disabled (accompanying person free), holders of volunteer cards of the city of Dessau-Roßlau

Gondola rides with catering

with pre-registration

May to September 10:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.
€150.00/hour (max. 12 people/gondola)
Extra hour € 110.00
Plus. Price for coffee set, food, drinks (only possible from Monday to Friday)
Booking under info@welterbe-gartenreich.de

Evening gondola ride (two hours) on Lake Wörlitz and the canals, a glass of Prosecco, Italian dinner on the gondola, half a bottle of wine, mineral water

Start 6:00 p.m., ticket price per person: € 68.00

Dates 2023:
July 04, 06, 11, 18, 20, 25, 27, 2023
01, 03, 08, 22, 24, 29, 31 August 2023

Booking at www.abendgondelfahrt.de

Ferry rides

Ferry rides across Lake Wörlitz

(Synagogue–Weidenheger)
March Sat, Sun 12:00–17:00
April, October daily 11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
May to September daily 10:00 a.m. – 6:30 p.m.

(Neumark’s Garden–Rose Island–Schoch’s Garden)
April, October daily 11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
May to September daily 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

(Schlossgarten–Neumark’s Garden)
April, October Sat, Sun, public holidays 11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
May to September daily 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Normal price:
€ 1.00 per person per ferry crossing, € 0.50 reduced
Children and pupils 0,50 €

Day ticket:
€ 3.00 per person, € 1.50 for children and pupils