Hi Hive friends!
Have you ever been to the Upper Lusatia in Germany or have you been on vacation nearby?
There is the beautiful English-style Muskau Castle in the Fürst-Pückler Park Bad Muskau. It has a total area of 545 hectares and is the largest English-style landscape park in Central Europe. I spent my summer semester vacations there with my parents about a year ago and then we also went to this castle. The park was designed by Hermann Prince von Pückler- Muskau in the period from 1815 to 1845. When you stroll through this huge garden, you realize that everything is perfectly coordinated. In 2004 it was even declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

A prince who fulfilled his dream of a monument

The palace is located at the southwestern end of the park and contains the permanent exhibition "Pückler! Pückler? Simply unbelievable!". The exhibition is mainly about the Prince of Pückler- Muskau. The castle has two tower domes and was built according to the Baroque style. The prince's successors changed it in the direction of neo-Renaissance and so it was rebuilt several times.

I just had to take this photo; the tree with the root looked just perfectly matched with the castle in the background, a little bit like in a fairy tale. Later you can see the tree again in full. It was all done very fancy, and I wondered how many gardeners such a castle complex needs to keep everything in good shape?
The palace complex includes not only the new palace, but also the old palace, the garden palace, the stables and the orangery. What you see here is the new castle. In the large garden you can move very well by boat, on foot, by bike or by carriage. We had come by bike, but connected it and then continued on foot. So we could also stop more often relaxed, such as at the many beautiful flowers to look at them up close. However, if you are on foot, you should definitely allow enough time. With the bike, however, we would have seen more; there are always pros and cons:)

Because we were a bit exhausted from the long walk in the park, we went to the "Pückler Cafe-Goldene Ananas" in between to strengthen ourselves a bit. It is a cafe in the orangery on the grounds of the historic Fürst-Pückler-Park palace garden center and is open seasonally.
It is open from mid-May to the end of September and most visitors are probably also visitors to the palace complex. During the winter months, the orangery is home to many plants. There is mainly cake and coffee, but also cold and warm dishes. Here you can organize celebrations of any kind - from weddings to birthday parties and company celebrations.

Here you can see again a sign about the different exhibitions and offers of the castle and when they take place.

Dining at the Pückler Cafe in the palace complex

As you can see, we decided on a small muffin, an ice cream parlour, a cappuccino and a piece of chocolate cake. It tasted delicious, we expected it a bit :) The cafe is highly recommended!





As we walked through the castle gardens, I had to photograph these flowers. I really liked the colors. Which flower do you think is the prettiest?

Here you can see the view of the castle from one of the bridges.




In fact, the park is so large that part of it belongs to the Saxon town of Bad Muskau and the other, larger part is on the Polish side and is separated by the Neisse, a river. However, the two parts are connected by several bridges. The construction had become very expensive at that time because of the difficult nature of the ground. A lot of soil had to be acquired with oxcarts, because the soil here was too sandy. In addition, for the park extra mature trees were transplanted with a lot of effort.

The prince was one of the most exciting figures of the 19th century. He was not only a politician, but also a lieutenant general, free thinker, writer and bon vivant. At that time, he maintained good contacts with the upper class. He wrote various literary works, which he used to finance his expensive travels. He also took part in the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig. With Muskauer Park, he fulfilled a dream that has now come true.

The new castle was lavishly restored for several years by the Free State of Saxony because of concerns about decay. the restoration lasted from 1995 to 2011.
What I found quite great: The entrance to the park is free of charge- so this option is certainly used more often by people and tourists. Children of preschool age don't have to pay anything for the exhibition either. For the adults, the permanent exhibition costs 2.50 euros entrance fee and for the castle tower 0.75 euros, so it's really not too expensive:)

It is a three-winged complex and the palace courtyard opens to the east towards the park. The connection to the park is formed by a huge castle ramp. The middle and west wings consist of four floors and at their apexes to the south and north wings a round tower has been built, the two are of different sizes.



Later, when we went back to our vacation home, we had a great blue sky, here are two more photos I took. The sun had disappeared behind the clouds and so the glittering frame came out. We drove along various fields and I a light summer breeze was blowing.
I hope you enjoyed my little tour to the new Muskau Castle with the park. For me it was one of the most beautiful castles that I have visited so far, which was probably due to the composition of trees, water and paths with various flowers. Everything was so well coordinated.
Have a great day!