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The Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz [Our heritage]

The Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz [World Heritage #15]

Published on 07 June 2016 - Updated 02 November 2016
Cet article date d'il y a plus de 7 ans

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Inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2000, the Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz in Saxony-Anhalt in the Middle Elbe Region is an exceptional example of landscape design and planning from the Age of Enlightenment in the 18th century. Its diverse components – the outstanding buildings, English-style landscaped parks and gardens and subtly modified expanses of agricultural land – served aesthetic, educational and economic purposes in an exemplary manner.

Prince Leopold III Friedrich-Franz of Unhalts-Dessau (1740-1817) and his advisor Friedrich Wilhelm von Erdmannsdorff (1736-1800) created Continental Europe’s first landscape garden, drawing inspiration from landscape gardens in England and ancient buildings in Italy. Over a period of forty years, a network of visual and stylistic relationships was developed with other landscape gardens in the region, leading to the creation of a garden landscape on a unique scale in Europe.

Through the conscious and structured incorporation of economic, technological and functional buildings and parks into the artistically designed landscape, it became an architectural encyclopaedia featuring examples from ancient times to the latest developments. Nowhere else in Europe had a prince brought such an all-embracing and extensive programme of landscape reform into being, particularly one so deeply rooted in philosophical and educational theory. With the unique density of its landscape of monuments, the Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz is an expression of the enlightened outlook of the court at Dessau, in which the landscape became the idealised world of its day.

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In 2000, the Loire Valley was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, which reflects the richness and diversity of the planet’s cultural and natural heritage. Mission Val de Loire extends you a monthly invitation to acquaint yourself with other World Heritage sites, which are also our heritage.