Kromlau Park and the Rakotz Bridge

Kromlau is a nineteenth-century landscape park in Upper Lusatia, a couple of hundred hectares of ponds, oaks and rhododendrons laid out by a local landowner with a taste for basalt. The reason most people drive out here is the Rakotzbrucke, a narrow arch of basalt columns thrown across a dark pond and built so that arch and reflection meet as a complete circle. It was decorative from the start and was never meant to carry anyone, so it is closed and fenced; you look at it from two points on the bank. The rest of the park is worth the walk in late spring, when the rhododendrons and azaleas go over for a few weeks, and it costs nothing to enter.

What you actually see

• The Rakotz Bridge - a basalt arch whose reflection closes into a full circle.
• The rhododendrons - a few weeks of heavy bloom in late May and early June.
• The basalt pinnacles - quarried columns set as rocks in and around the pond.
• The park paths - ponds, old oaks and an estate house across two hundred hectares.

When to go

The bloom window is short, roughly mid-May to mid-June, and it is the only time the park as a whole justifies the drive. For the bridge itself, early morning gives still water and the two viewpoints to yourself; by late morning at a weekend they are three deep in photographers. Autumn colour is a decent second option.

Honest expectations

The bridge is fenced off and photographed from two crowded spots, so nobody walks across it. The circle only works with still, clear water, and wind, rain or summer algae remove it. Outside the flowering weeks the park is pleasant green woodland and little more. It is a long drive from any city, public transport is thin, and facilities on site are minimal.

Nearby

Bad Muskau's landscape park, inscribed as World Heritage, and the boulder park at Nochten.