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In Germany, the idea of the landscape garden based on Rousseau's philosophy spread with particular intensity. In the age of Enlightenment the garden at Wörlitz, near Dessau, rapidly became famous. It was the creation of Prince Friedrich Franz of Anhalt-Dessau, and soon after its completion, around 1790, it was held to be one of the major attractions of Europe. For the Prince, the garden was a model of the enlightened state, and was to be the aesthetic centre of a model principality. It was clearly modeled on the British landscape garden. The Prince undertook several extensive journeys to England and studied the gardens there. He was accompanied on his travels by the architect Friedrich Wilhelm von Erdmannsdorff and the gardener Johann Friedrich Eyserbeck.
Erdmannsdorff designed the Neo-Palladian Schloss at Wörlitz, based on his English experiences. Interiors in the Schloss include Pompeian elements, while the park, laid out by Johann Friedrich Eyserbeck (1734-1818) and Johann Leopold Ludwig Schoch (1728-1793), has many allusions to England. In fact, the park incorporates many influences from Kew, near Richmond, Rousham (Oxfordshire), Stourhead (Wiltshire) and Stowe (Buckinghamshire), and was an attempt to create England-by-the-Elbe, as an exemplary and educational programme to raise the tone of the Principality to one of Enlightenment and Progress.
The photo shows a view from the golden urn to the "new" bridge, synagogue and church.
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