History
The geometric-formal order of the Prince George Garden reveals the horticultural influence of 18th-century France. The orangery garden, water basin, hedge theatre, bosquets and sundials are the elements that characterise it.
Two Gardens in One
In 1764, Landgrave Louis VIII (1691-1768) gifted the garden to his second-born favourite son Prince George William (1722-1782). It was created from two originally independent gardens: the garden of Landgrave Ernst Louis of Hesse-Darmstadt (1667-1739) with a small palace and the garden of Lieutenant General Rudolf von Pretlack (1668-1737), acquired by Louis for this purpose, with an ornamental, brightly painted garden house. This amalgamation is still visible today in the unmistakable ground plan and the two main axes crossing at right angles. The ornamental and kitchen gardens were also connected in a special way: Flowers, fruit trees, herbs and vegetables alternate in the beds bordered by box hedges.
Family Celebrations in Idyll
Not only middle-class households, but also many aristocratic households owned a garden at that time. From it, they supplied themselves with food and created a rural atmosphere in order to revel in the supposedly idyllic, then romantically transfigured, peasant and shepherd life.
A Family Retreat
For George William, the garden behind the high walls was above all an intimate refuge. Here he withdrew from official obligations and courtly etiquette with his family and aristocratic friends and enjoyed carefree pastimes and informal festivities.
Later Just Garden Land
With the death of George William’s daughter Luise, Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine (1761-1829), the close ties between the Darmstadt princely family and the garden came to an end. Initially well preserved as the seat of the Grand Ducal Horticultural Directorate, the grounds later lost their original form as the domicile of a commercial nursery and as a result of partial leasing as garden land.
Fruit and Vegetables are growing side by side
Since 1947, the Prince George Garden has been in the care of the Hessian Castle Administration, which has reconstructed it on the basis of extensive research and transformed it back into the gem it once was. The historic planting with its characteristic combination of ornamental and useful plants is a feast for the eyes.
Pretlack’s Garden House and Prince George’s Palace
In Pretlack’s Garden House there is a public reading room, stocked with book donations, where you can help yourself to the books available there and read them indoors or outdoors in the park. Since 1908, Prince George’s Palace has housed the Porcelain Museum with the Grand Ducal Hessian Porcelain Collection, which is open between April and November.