SCHONBUSCH PARK – ASCHAFFENBURG
Bishop Elector’s Summer Park and Folly Castle
Schönbusch Park in Aschaffenburg is one of the oldest and largest of English-style landscaped gardens in Germany. The Englischer Garten in Munich is better known (see Munich’s English Garden) and the style of nature park became quite popular among the royal classes and appear around many palaces around the country (see Ludwigsburg Palace). The visual centerpiece of Schönbusch (Beautiful Bush) is the pavilion “castle” or schloss. Never a full time residence, but more summer guesthouse, the electoral pavilion in the middle of the park was built in the classical style from 1778 to 1787 when the interior was completed. The two story, ten room 18th Century Schloss Schönbusch is visible in a line of sight from the elector’s palace in the center of Aschaffenburg (see Johannisburg Palace) a few miles away. The park palace can be seen inside with a guided tour during the spring and summer months. The former royal Orangerie of the park has been repurposed as a restaurant and beer garden.
In 1775, the Elector and Archbishop of Mainz Friedrich Karl Joseph von Erthal decided that his secondary residence in Aschaffenburg on the Main River where he mainly stayed in the summer months, needed a pleasure garden. There was a lot of land available in the "Nilkheimer forest" which was used by the Bishop electors for hunting game and pheasant. Architect and engineer Emanuel Joseph von Herigoyen was engaged to design the park. He followed ideas based on the concept of the Jardin Englais – the English garden. The Baroque age had focused on the formal style of order and symmetry, but the strictures of the old style were fading and large spaces seemed more conducive to dramatic landscapes of the seemingly disorganized but cultured wild woodlands with meadows and lakes. The first landscaping in the English style was not entirely successful and the Schwetzingen Court gardener, Friedrich Ludwig Sckell was engaged with the park design in 1783. The Schonbush Park, though the property of the Bishops was opened as a public garden for its earliest days. With the end of the old Mainz rule of Aschaffenburg, the park was transferred to the Bavarian Crown in 1814, and with the collapse of the empire after World War I, a truly public park, managed by the State of Bavaria.
The park features a wide variety of plants and extensive wooded areas among the gentle hills, alternating with verdant landscaped green meadows, dotted with artificially created lakes with swimming duck and swans. With the woods are a series of follies, designed buildings which serve principally as decorative elements, including the Lookout Tower and the Red Bridge, a Temple of Friendship, and the Philosopher‘s House, also miniature villages and shepherds‘ huts.
Visiting Schonbusch Park
The park is free to enter and enjoy the walking trails and a lovely spot to have lunch in nice weather. The Schloss Schönbusch summer palace is open April 30 until October, daily from 9 am to 5 pm, except Mondays. Entry price is €3.60 for adults and €2.50 for seniors and groups. The park is a bit out of the center of the city to the west district in the direction of Darmstadt. © Bargain
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See Also:
ST PETER AND ALEXANDER TREASURY
SCHLOSS NYMPHENBURG PALACE AND GARDENS
HOTEL JAGDSCHLOSS KRANICHSTEIN
AUGUSTUSBURG & FALKENLUST PALACES BRUHL
