JULY 2024
I had Schlossgarten Schwetzingen pinned ever since I had seen pictures of its’ cherry blossom trees years ago. Recently, we were in the area and in desperate need for a fun stop. Even though it was not cherry blossom season, we absolutely loved the gardens and would highly recommend a visit. It is a great daytrip from Frankfurt or Heidelberg, or as a pitstop from the A6, like we did.
Practical information
You can visit both the castle and the gardens. We opted for a garden visit (€ 8 per person) and bought our tickets at the ticket desk. If you want to visit the castle, this is possible by joining a tour (€ 9). They also have English spoken tours, please check out the website for the official hours. The garden and castle can be visited in winter as well, at a slightly discounted price and shorter opening hours. I highly recommend visiting in spring/summer to get the best garden experience though. There are several parkings in Schwetzingen and they are indicated well when you ride into town. We parked our campervan at Parkplatz Alter Messplatz, I think we technically did not pay the correct fee, but there were no height restrictions which we liked. We didn’t expect too much of Schwetzingen itself, but were charmed by the colorful main street which featured many type of restaurants. We had lunch at the traditional Schwetzinger Brauhaus zum Ritter and had a delicious flammkuchen. Whether you like Mexican or Italian, plenty of good restaurants and terraces opposite the castle.
Schlossgarten
The castle garden has quite some history and it changed its appearance many times over the course of history. The garden originates from 1718, but parts have been added and renovated throughout time. We visited in June 2024 and I found there to be quite some highlights. Once you walk through the castle and enter the gardens, you arrive in a French style garden, with flower borders, fountains and hedges.
I also really loved the long lanes of (topiary) trees, which you find scattered throughout the gardens. I cannot imagine how time consuming it must be to prune all those trees to keep the garden looking amazing.
You can find some buildings and installations in the gardens as well. One of them is the “end of the world”, as featured in the picture below. You will find this type of creating a tunnel of green in several areas of the garden.
One of the buildings is a bath house, which you can enter with your garden ticket. You must wear gigantic slippers over your shoes to walk inside, which adds a fun element!
At the Apollo temple you will find beautiful fountains. You can enter the temple by walking through a cave, which I found so surprising.
Near the Orangerie you will find one of the most impressive topiary style trees. I found it difficult to capture how grand these were, but I hope you can see me sitting in the middle and get the gist of it.
The cherry blossoms usually bloom somewhere in April, so we missed these by quite some weeks, I would love to go back once these are in bloom. I did not expect these secretive, imaginative, grand gardens!
