Weilburg Palace and Palace Garden

History

The story that Weilburg Palace and Palace Garden tell its visitors could almost be a fairytale: The young count of a dwarf state on the Lahn, John Ernest zu Nassau-Weilburg (1664-1719), arrives at the magnificent court of the French Sun King Louis XIV in Versailles on his cavalier tour – the educational trip for young men of noble status. Like all the guests, he is overwhelmed by the lavish architecture of the palace and the splendour of the huge park. It is here that his vision is born, the realisation of which he begins in 1702.

Through his services to the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel and the Elector Palatine, John Ernest is financially well off and so he commissions his architect Julius Ludwig Rothweil to give the small residential town a major makeover. In the years to come, the medieval town, scarred by the destruction of the Thirty Years’ War, is transformed into a flourishing residential town. Since then, it has been referred to as a “pearl on the Lahn”.