The "Schönbusch" Landscape Park near Aschaffenburg

The "Schönbusch" Landscape Park near Aschaffenburg

With an area of 160 hectares, Schönbusch Park is a very large park. It is located outside Aschaffenburg and is today an important local recreation area. It used to be a former hunting ground of the prince bishops of Mainz. At the same time, Schönbusch is one of the oldest and largest landscape parks in Germany.

The bishops of Mainz owned a summer residence in Aschaffenburg made of red sandstone, the so-called Johannisburg. From 1775, the Prince-Bishop of Mainz, Friedrich Karl Joseph von Erthal, commissioned the Portuguese architect José Manuel Herigoyen to redesign the hunting grounds in the Nilkheim forest and the princely pheasantry into a pleasure garden. Herigoyen oriented himself on the ideal of an English landscape park. From 1783, the Schwetzingen court gardener Friedrich Ludwig Sckell was commissioned with the design. From the beginning, the park was to be open to everyone as a public garden.

View axis from Castle Schönbusch to Castle Johnnisburg in the downtown of Aschaffenburg

The park is characterised by small woods and meadow valleys, as well as a small lake landscape. The 20 km of footpaths offer ever-changing landscapes and views - from the small castle even as far as Johannisburg Castle in Aschaffenburg's city centre. Even though the park is characterised by natural-looking landscape elements, there are a few references to baroque gardens. This becomes clear, for example, in the dead straight ornamental canal that leads to an artificial waterfall (the cascade) created by Sckell or the area around the orangery.

The orangery

The ornamental channel leading to the cascades

The devil's bridge

South of the lower lake are three artificial hills, two of which are connected by the so-called Devil's Bridge (1788). On the highest hill there is a lookout tower. Originally made of wood, it had to be replaced by a brick tower in 1867 after almost a hundred years of existance.

The watch tower

The Welzbach stream was diverted to irrigate the lakes. However, its water was not sufficient for the needed water supply. The actually larger upper lake is now only a smaller pond - the lower lake with its three ha surface dominates today, especially as there is a very beautiful view of Schönbusch Palace across it. Today, water can be replenished from the nearby Main River via a pumping station. The lower lake is also home to the Rote Brücke (Red Bridge) - a stone bridge dating from 1789 that was moved 20 meters into the park in the course of road construction work in the 1930s.

 

 

The lower lake and the red bridge

The upper lake

The Princely Pavilion, built according to plans by Herigoyen, is a small palace with ten rooms located directly on the Lower Lake. It was built between 1778 and 1781. The early classical Schönbusch Palace can be visited on guided tours.

In the entrance area of the park are the former farm buildings such as the kitchen building from 1781, which already housed a restaurant and beer garden in the 18th century. A number of entertainment facilities can be accessed from here. 

At the end of the 1820s, a circular maze was created, which in principle still exists today - albeit somewhat enlarged and with different hedge planting (currently with hornbeam). Visitors to the maze can be observed from a gallery. There is also a playground for small children. 

There is a rowing boat rental at the lower lake, which is used extensively, as is the nearby beer garden. The dance hall, which was built around 1801 as a dining hall, is also located there.

Somewhat hidden away is the orangery (1784/1785), which also includes the former kitchen building. Today it houses an exhibition on the history of the park. A ring path connects the other park buildings like a winding belt around the park and always opens up lines of sight. If you follow the path clockwise from the visitor centre, you first come to a dining hall from 1784/85 and then to two small staffage settlements, which are supposed to embody a rural idyll. In 1788, the shepherd's houses ("Die Wacht") were built. With a cattle pasture where cattle still graze today, the hamlet becomes even more rural. Also built in 1788, it is supposed to represent an ideal picture of rural contentment. Nearby, the Salettchen was built in 1792 as a small saloon.

The dining hall

The former kitchen building

"Die Wacht" - shepherd's houses

Rural idyll - the hamlet

The Salettche - the small saloon

Valley of games - the scales of fun

A path leads through the valley of games

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The path leads through the Valley of Games, a place where once (proven from 1777) various fixed playground equipment were used as attractions to pass the time. The only thing that has been preserved are the scales: here you could be weighed for fun. A merry-go-round, a swing and a skittles game were further entertainment elements in this part of the park. As a place of solitude and reflection, there is a philosopher's house built between 1799 and 1802 according to plans by Herigoyen, as well as the Temple of Friendship (1786-1788).

The temple of friendship

 

The philosopher's house