Belvedere Palace Gardens

Two kilometres to the south of Weimar are the 43-hectare Belvedere Palace Gardens. Between 1728 and 1748, during the reign of Duke Ernst August, a summer palace and a park with Baroque gardens, a star-shaped zoo directly behind the castle and an orangery were built. Since 1821, the Red Tower has directly adjoined the so-called Long House in the flower garden. From 1806 to 1853/59, Belvedere Palace served as the summer residence of the Hereditary Grand Duke Carl Friedrich and his wife Maria Pavlovna. By the mid-19th century, in about 1850, the present design of the park, as a post-Classical, romantic countryside park with decorative sitting areas, water and cave systems, sentimental monuments and architectural ruins, was completed. The Baroque origins of the building ensembles are still apparent.