"The Palace Gardens - 18th Century Wonderland" Top 5 Page for this destination Schwetzingen by Kathrin_E

Schwetzingen Travel Guide: 101 reviews and 458 photos

Schwetzingen palace and the baroque parterre

The Baroque Palace and Garden

The palace in Schwetzingen was built as a summer and hunting palace for the Electors of the Pfalz in the 16th century and later enlarged. In the 18th century a huge park was added.

The central part, as shown in photo 1, is a geometrical garden with parterres and bosquets in the typical baroque style. The outer parts, however, are English landscape gardens with a large number of buildings and attractions.

Schwetzingen is a candidate for the status of UNESCO World Heritage. The administration of the palaces and gardens in Baden-Württemberg have just handed in their application. Let's see.

Official website of Schloss Schwetzingen

The Landscape Garden

Landscape garden with castle ruin and aqueduct

In the late 18th century the gardening fashion changed. The baroque principles were abandoned. Instead, gardens now resembled natural landscapes, although they were still carefully designed. Small buildings were placed among trees, meadows and lakes, romantic views created. The buildings are a collection of architectures from all over the world and all eras. You'll discover a mosque, an ancient Roman temple, a medieval castle ruin, a Chinese bridge, an aqueduct, Egyptian sphinxes and many many more. You'll find separate tips about many of them on my pages.

Take your time to explore the park and take in its many surprises. Minimum time: 1 hour for the tour of the palace plus 3 hours for the park.

The Town of Schwetzingen

Pedestrian mall in the town centre

While the palace and its gardens are the main attraction of Schwetzingen, the centre of the little town deserves a look, too. I'm sorting my tips about the town into "Off the beaten path tips" to separate them from those about the palace.

Website of the municipality of Schwetzingen

Last visit to Schwetzingen: May 2008
Intro Updated Jun 8, 2008
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Reviews (34)

PARK: The Cherry Plantage in Bloom Things to Do (24)

Kirschplantage is a large rectangular field north of the Mosque garden which is planted with rows of Japanese... more travel advice

Asparagus with ham, potatoes, pancake and sauce h. - Schwetzingen

White Asparagus Local Customs (1)

Worshipping white asparagus is almost a cult in certain regions of Germany. The area around Mannheim, Schwetzingen,... more travel advice

PARK: Stag Fountain Things to Do (24)

The stag fountain in the central axis marks the end of the baroque parterres. It refers to Schwetzingen's function as... more travel advice

PARK: The Mercury Temple Things to Do (24)

The so-called Temple of Mercury was built on an artificial hill in 1784/88. The temple was positioned as point de vue in... more travel advice

Transportation (1)
To Schwetzingen Palace By Train
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Comments (6)

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fabrice Jun 8, 2010 at 12:12 AM

I did not know there was such a beautiful city so near from Mannheim and Heidelberg
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margaretvn Apr 3, 2009 at 6:41 AM

I enjoyed your page - looks like a place i would like to visit. The photos in your albums are great too
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Nemorino Jan 11, 2009 at 4:25 AM

Hi Kathrin, thanks for your nice holiday wishes. I enjoyed reading your 18th Century Wonderland tips here on your Schwetzingen page. Thanks for your link to the Claque tip on my Pforzheim page; I have also just added a link back to your tip.
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Cristian_Uluru Oct 19, 2008 at 11:30 PM

Fantastic page!!! Wonderful photos of the autumn colours in the park!
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iandsmith Sep 26, 2008 at 4:57 AM

Excellent - genuine 5 star tips. Thanks for sharing. (Looks a lot different to when I was there!)
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Trekki Jun 9, 2008 at 11:24 PM

Oh, wonderful :-)) I've been to Schwetzingen many times with visitors and they loved it more than Heidelberg :-)) Haha, I never looked that close at the coat of arms, the pink buttons look like Smarties :-)