Wörlitz Garden Realm

Prince Leopold III Friedrich Franz of Anhalt-Dessau travelled to England in the 1760s and returned to lay out a garden in the English manner from 1769, the first substantial landscape garden in continental Europe, with the country house at Wörlitz built at the same time in a neoclassical style also drawn from English models. The Stein, an artificial island, carries a copy of a Vesuvius crater that could be made to erupt with fire, smoke and water running down as red-lit lava for guests; it still operates on announced evenings. The garden realm covers about a hundred and forty square kilometres of designed landscape along the Elbe, UNESCO-listed in 2000.

Highlights

• The artificial volcano - a Vesuvius replica staged to erupt on set evenings.
• The country house - a neoclassical villa on English models of the 1770s.
• The gondola crossings - flat ferries poled across the lakes and canals.
• The garden realm - designed landscape spread over 140 square kilometres.

When to go

April to October; the volcano erupts only on announced dates, usually a few evenings a year, and tickets sell out. Gondolas and the house are seasonal.

Before you go

Volcano eruptions are rare, ticketed events. The house is guided-only. The realm is dispersed and needs a bicycle or car.

Nearby

Dessau lies west; Wittenberg is northeast.