Six picturesque castle parks for a romantic getaway

Majestic green

Even a big city plant needs air to breathe. It's a good thing that Düsseldorf has so many green oases in the middle of the city. First and foremost the Rhine meadows, but also the Aaper and Grafenberg forests, not forgetting the 241 parks and green spaces in the Rhine metropolis. There is no question that urban greenery increases the quality of life, and the fact that Düsseldorf combines nature with culture in many places, marrying history with horticulture, puts the green crown on the whole thing. Do you long for wide park landscapes with valuable trees, do you prefer a cultivated stroll to a "profane" walk? Are you interested in royal kitchen gardens and historic water features? No matter where you are in Düsseldorf, whether north or south, the nearest palace park is usually just around the corner. 

Benrath Palace Park

Pleasure strolling in Düsseldorf? It's best to direct your steps straight to Benrath. This is where an admirer of French rococo once had a pink pleasure palace built - and the palace park that goes with it. In the middle of the 18th century, Elector Karl Theodor von der Pfalz commissioned the master builder Nicolas de Pigage to design a "Maison de plaisance" complete with spacious gardens and parkland extending to the banks of the Rhine. These not only harmonized with the palace architecture - in keeping with the nobility - but were also intended to reflect the preferences of the palace residents. The result: an English garden with rare trees for the Elector and a French-style garden with water features and flowerbeds intended for the Electress. You shouldn't be surprised that the Elector only visited Benrath Palace once - the 30-minute subway ride from the city center is definitely worth it. The park with its palace pond and mirror pond is a listed building and is partly designated as a nature reserve. More than 80 bird species and over 300 beetle species live here. The mightiest trees include a giant sequoia and a Japanese sickle fir, but the avenues of lime trees planted by de Pigage are also impressive. The old ornamental and vegetable gardens have been reconstructed, and garden artists such as Maximilian Friedrich Weyhe and Peter Joseph Lenné immortalized themselves in the Elector's Garden in the 19th century. This also contributes to the fact that the people of Düsseldorf love Benrath Palace Park. As the grounds cover over 61 hectares, you won't be standing on each other's feet. It can only get a little crowded on the steps of the Zuckerbäckerschloss, especially when a wedding party gathers for a romantic photo. You don't just want to stroll around, but also learn something? The Museum of Garden Art on the grounds is dedicated to the history of European horticulture and Düsseldorf as a garden city. The castle can also be visited.

Courtyard garden

It is the first and oldest public garden in Germany. However, many people are not aware that the Hofgarten actually has "courtly" origins, nor that this park also owes its existence to Elector Karl Theodor 's desire to build - and the efforts of Nicolas de Pigage. Karl Theodor had commissioned a baroque hunting lodge from his master builder, and even before the completion of "Schloss Jägerhof" in 1772, he began designing a "promenade" between the palace and the fortress belt of the time. When it was built, Schloss Jägerhof was still at the gates of the city. From the outset, the plan was for the townspeople to benefit from this structural measure. Today, Schloss Jägerhof on Pempelforter Jacobistraße is home to the Goethe Museum and the point de vue of the "Reitallee" in the eastern part of the Hofgarten. South of it, you will come across the statue of Maximilian Friedrich Weyhe, who redesigned the Hofgarten after its destruction during the French occupation at the beginning of the 19th century and expanded it into a landscape park based on the English model. It has become even more attractive since the construction of Kö-Bogen I and II, as it now connects almost seamlessly to the Kö and the city. The green lung of the Rhine metropolis offers you 13 hectares of meadows, as well as three hectares of water, including several fountains and the Landskrone with the Golden Bridge, the oldest pedestrian bridge in the city. There is a small flower garden near the adjacent Schauspielhaus theater and, as in Benrath, you can also spot bridal couples in the Volksgarten, as the registry office is right across the street.

Mickeln Castle Park

Düsseldorf is not only an art metropolis, but also a garden city. Maximilian Friedrich Weyhe, who is considered the most important garden artist of the 19th century in the Rhineland, made a significant contribution to this - you guessed it right. It's a good thing he was so active in Düsseldorf: he also left his mark on Mickeln Palace Park in the Himmelgeist district, which was his last park project. The eponymous castle is a three-storey neoclassical-style villa on a square floor plan, which today serves as a conference and guest house for Heinrich Heine University. It is part of a complex of buildings that also includes Gut Meierhof dating back to the 12th century, a Fronhof that is at least as old and the even older St. Nicholas Church - and Weyhe included these historic buildings in the alignment of the visual axes. The same applies to the adjacent Rhine meadows and the neighboring fields, and the 20-hectare palace park breathes the same tranquility and spaciousness as the surrounding idyllic Himmelgeist district with its extensive agricultural areas. The linden trees, which are over 150 years old and line the driveway to the villa, were part of the initial planting, as were two Lebanon cedars, a ginkgo and several plane trees and copper beeches, which are registered as natural monuments. Consequently, the park is not only a listed monument but also a nature reserve - wonderful for a walk!

Eller Castle Park

We stay in the south of Düsseldorf. Like Mickeln Castle, Eller Castle is a manor house dating back to the 19th century. But its history is much older, as there was once a medieval moated castle on the same site. And that brings us to the topic of water, because water is one of the most characteristic elements in Eller Castle Park. In addition to the castle pond, which looks exactly like a castle pond should with its water lilies, there is another pond. It is located in the forest park created at the beginning of the 20th century. Both bodies of water are fed by the Eselsbach stream. In its day, the moated castle was the center of the village of Eller, and to this day Eller Castle is surrounded by two-story houses from the last century, the upper floors of which are half-timbered. City dwellers will be amazed: these former coach houses, horse stables and farm buildings, which are grouped around an inner courtyard with a mighty plane tree, now house rental apartments. If you are not lucky enough to live here, you will have to make do with a visit to the 30-hectare park. And please don't be alarmed: Nutrias have settled in the pond sections and occasionally show themselves on the banks.

Lantz'scher Park

What was that again? Düsseldorf is a city of art and gardens? Lantz'sche Park in the Lohausen district shows us that there is a lot to this formula. In 1975, Düsseldorf gallery owner Alfred Schmela opened his "Gallery in the Park" in Villa Lantz. Exhibitions with Andy Warhol, Joseph Beuys and Günther Uecker were held here. Schmela turned the almost 15 hectares of green space surrounding the villa into a sculpture park. In 2020, this idea was revived on the initiative of Gregor Jansen, Director of the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, and since then, changing exhibition organizers have presented the works of international contemporary artists on the grounds every year during the summer months. But even when the event takes a break, such as during the winter months, art and sculptures from different eras can be discovered in Lantz'schen Park. The classicist Villa Lanz is also steeped in history: a moated castle is said to have once stood here, the seat of the lords of Calcum zu Lohausen, and is now the headquarters of a company. Not yet familiar with the park in the north of Düsseldorf? A wrought-iron gate on Lohauser Dorfstraße forms the main entrance. Keep left and you'll head straight for the old manor house. In the middle of the park, at the end of a large avenue, is the Lantz Chapel, which is also well worth seeing. If you leave the park through a gate at the back, you will reach the Rhine dyke via field paths and can take a short tour to Kaiserswerth.

Dyck Castle Park

We cross the city limits. Why? Dyck Castle in Jüchen is one of the most culturally and historically significant moated castles in the Rhineland. The estate in the Rhine district of Neuss was owned by the Salm-Reifferscheidt-Dyck family for more than 900 years before being taken over by a foundation in 1999. Since then, the time-honored building has been partially open to visitors. For example, the ballroom with its baroque ceiling painting can be visited. But it is not only the moated castle, bathed in fresh yellow, that is worth the 25-kilometre journey from Düsseldorf city center. With its outer castles and the farmyard, the so-called Dycker Ländchen extends over four islands in the Kelzenberg stream and also includes a 53-hectare English landscape garden. Here you can stroll among majestic trees and shrubs that are unparalleled in Europe in terms of age and species richness, including giant yew and sequoia, bald cypress and tulip tree, Korean poplar and antler tree. Forest paths and avenues open up to wide meadows and rolling hills. Are you enthusiastic about gardening? Then let yourself be inspired by the themed gardens created for the European Garden Show EUROGA 2002plus. A 3,500 square meter Asian-Japanese garden offers further inspiration, as do changing exhibitions, for example on garden photography - and so the site rightly bears the title "Centre for Garden Art and Landscape Culture". For those who want to stay longer: The former coach house is not only home to a restaurant, but also a hotel. The Museum Insel Hombroich is also very close to Schloss Dyck and is well worth a visit.

This article is funded by REACT-EU.

Pictures: Düsseldorf Tourism