Wörlitz Palace and Landscape Park

More than 250 years ago, England enthusiast Leopold III Friedrich Franz von Anhalt-Dessau (1740 - 1817) took the bold step of creating the first English landscape park on the European continent in Wörlitz. Just four years later, he built Wörlitz Palace, the founding building of German Classicism, based on designs by Friedrich Wilhelm von Erdmannsdorff.

The Wörlitz Landscape Park is the prelude and artistic highlight of a unique program to beautify the country and improve life that Prince Franz wanted to achieve in his principality. It is considered the epitome of the Enlightenment in Germany.

A total of five garden sections correspond with each other through a well thought-out system of visual relationships, paths and canals. Numerous buildings, sculptures and woodland plantings form the starting and ending points of these visual relationships. They open up to the visitor behind every bend in the path or from one of the many garden seats. Prince Franz had the gardens designed according to the motto "to combine the pleasant with the useful". The gardens were also used for fruit growing, agriculture and animal husbandry. Another exemplary aspect of the garden design is the intention to educate - the main reason for making the gardens accessible to everyone from the outset. 17 beautiful water crossings, for example, tell the story of the art of bridge building!