Travelog post for: Gypsy

Hello Mommy,

today I visited the park of Wörlitz, which is a part of the Dessau-Wörlitz Garden Realm. The central Wörlitzer Park lies adjacent to the small town of Wörlitz at an anabranch of the Elbe river. It was laid out between 1769 and 1773 as one of the first English gardens on the continent. According to the ideals of Duke Leopold III the park would also serve as an educational institution in architecture, gardening and agriculture, therefore large parts were open to the public from the beginning. Most buildings were designed by Erdmannsdorff, while the gardens were laid out by Johann Friedrich Eyserbeck. The gardens are protected from floods of the Elbe river in the north by a dam which is also a belt-walk offering numerous views along the park's sight lines.
Wörlitz Palace finished in 1773, residence of Duke Leopold and his wife Louise of Brandenburg-Schwedt, was the first Neoclassical building in present-day Germany. The palace and its interior with valuable cabinets from the studio of Abraham and David Roentgen as well as a large collection of Wedgwood porcelain were publicly accessible. Louise had her private home in the adjacent Graues Haus (Grey House). At the eastern rim of the palace's garden stands the Wörlitz Synagogue built in 1790 as a rotunda modelled after the ancient "Temple of Vesta in Tivoli, Italy. The Neo-Gothic St Peter's Church in the west with its 66 m (217 ft) tall steeple was finished in 1809.
The philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the aesthetic of Johann Joachim Winckelmann underlie the design of the park. Wörlitz Lake featured an island atop which was a model of Mount Vesuvius. The duke would stage fireworks that seemed to issue from an erupting volcano to entertain his guests. At the foot of the mountain on the island was a building intended to suggest William Hamilton's home at Pompeii.
Few years ago my host worked as a tour guide in the castle and the park.

This is the Wörlitz Palace.


This is St Peter's Church. We could see the tower 10 minutes before we arrived to that village!


This is the rock island with the volcano Vesuvius and Villa Hamilton on it.



Look how high the church is!


Love,
Gypsy