The Stunning Wilhelmshöhe Palace & Park
Wilhelmshöhe Palace & Park is a stunning castle and unique landscape park in Kassel, Germany. The area of the park is 2.4 square kilometres (590 acres), making it the largest European hillside park, and second largest park on a mountain slope in the world.
Construction of the park began in 1696 at the request of the Landgraves of Hesse-Kassel and took about 150 years. Originally laid out in the Baroque style of the Italian garden and the French formal garden with water features running downhill in cascades to the Wilhelmshöhe castle, it was later re-arranged into an English landscape garden with water features added in 1714.
During the summer, from May until October on every Wednesday and Sunday afternoon, visitors can watch the magical water show. Additionally, every first Saturday of the summer months this event takes place during the evening with different colored lights illuminating the water, the fountain and the different monuments (picture 2).
Visitors can follow the water’s way as it runs down the cascades, the Steinhöfer’s waterfall (pictures 1), the devil’s bridge (picture 4), until it tumbles down the aqueduct before finally arriving at the lake of the Wilhelmshöhe castle where a fountain of about 50 meters ends the spectacle (picture 3). This system has been in place for more than 300 years. In June, 2013 it was proclaimed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site which guarantees its preservation and elevates the site’s status as one of the many fascinating man-made structures on our planet.