Wörlitz Park, Dessau, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.

© Nellmac/Getty Images/iStockphoto

Wörlitz Park & Schloss Wörlitz

Top choice in Central Germany


With peacocks feeding on the lawn before a neo-Gothic house, a tree-lined stream flowing towards a Grecian-style temple and a gap in a hedge framing a distant villa, the 112-hectare English-style Wörlitz Park is the pinnacle of Prince Leopold’s garden region. Take your sweet time to saunter amid this mosaic of paths, hedges and follies, but don’t even think about picnicking on the sprawling lawns: even walking on them is very much verboten, as is bicycling within park grounds.

On the edge of the park nearest the town lies Prince Leopold’s former country house, the neoclassical Schloss Wörlitz, which is still filled with original late-18th-century furniture and decorations.

Bus 334 does the 30-minute trip from Dessau-Rosslau to Wörlitz roughly every two hours between 6am and 5.30pm. From late March to early October, there’s also a 35-minute train service on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. Check the timetable carefully before heading out or, better yet, check with the information kiosk Mobilitätszentrale outside the train station. By road from Dessau-Rosslau, take the B185 east to the B107 north, which brings you right into town.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Central Germany attractions

1. Schloss & Park Oranienbaum

3.37 MILES

Ongoing restoration is underway at this delightful Dutch-inspired baroque ensemble, south of Wörlitz, but visitors can access most of the rooms and in…

2. Schloss & Park Luisium

6.29 MILES

Schloss Luisium is an intimate neoclassical refuge framed by an idyllic English garden scattered with neo-Gothic and classical follies. East of central…

3. Moses-Mendelssohn-Zentrum

7.9 MILES

Located within the Törten Estate, this exhibition tracks the life and accomplishments of the Dessau-born humanist philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, the…

4. Törten Estate

8.06 MILES

The leafy Törten Estate, built in Dessau’s south in the 1920s, is a prototype of the modern working-class estate. Although many of the 300-plus homes have…

5. Konsumgebäude

8.06 MILES

The former Konsumgebäude building, once the centre for trade and cooperative living on the Törten Estate, today houses an information centre and a small…

6. Schloss & Park Georgium

8.18 MILES

The sprawling 18th-century Park Georgium is anchored by its neoclassical palace, now a picture gallery showcasing German and Dutch old masters such as…

7. Bauhausgebäude

8.32 MILES

It’s almost impossible to overstate the significance of this building, erected in 1925–26, as a school of Bauhaus art, design and architecture. Today a…

8. Gropiushaus

8.51 MILES

Walter Gropius' house is the most recently reconstructed of the Masters' Houses, opened to the public in 2014. It contains the ticket office for the…