Germany Guide
Saxony-Anhalt and the Harz
Wörlitz
With its Gothic follies and mock Classical statues dotting the manicured lawns, and swans and rowing boats bobbing on its tranquil lakes, Wörlitz mentally transports you to England. And it's the English country park that inspired Prince Leopold III and Anhalt's favourite court architect, Friedrich Wilhelm von Erdmannsdorff, who created this attractive stately home and country garden midway between Lutherstadt Wittenberg and Dessau at the end of the eighteenth century.
The park grows fairly seamlessly out of the village and all its main buildings cluster at the boundary of the two. These include the engaging Neoclassical Schloss Wörlitz (May– Sept Tues– Sun 10am–6pm; April, Oct & Nov Tues– Sun 10am–6pm; €4.50; 034905/409 20) whose Baroque decoration is rather muted and which can only be visited on an hour-long tour. Day tickets (€10) for sale at the Schloss include a tour as well as access to a number of other buildings in the park, including the Gotisches Haus (€4.50), the Prince's neo-Gothic residence, and that of his wife, the Haus der Fürstin (€4.50), which is mostly of interest for its temporary exhibitions about the park. You can also visit Insel Stein (€3), a mock Italian landscape, and a synagogue (€1), built for the local population at the Prince's expense. His opinion that "faith is, like love, unchangeable", is inscribed on the interior.
One good way to orientate yourself in the landscaped park is to take a popular gondola tour of its central lake (45min; €6). They depart according to demand from the dock behind the Schloss. Note the interesting array of bridges over the park waterways, each built in a different style and including a midget Iron Bridge – a quarter of the size of the original over the Severn in Britain. Wörlitz gets rather too busy on summer weekends, though this is also when classical concerts are held.