Hi Hive friends!
This post today I wanted to write for a long time, because the place is one that I wanted to visit some time ago. It's about the "Lustschloss im Süden" as it is often called in Düsseldorf, the capital of North Rhine-Westphalia. Even Queen Elisabeth II and Queen Silvia of Sweden visited the castle in the south of Düsseldorf - if that's not an incentive?! I went there yesterday with a friend and we were really lucky with the weather, the sky was cloudy but again and again the sun shone through. We went from Cologne by train to the stop "Düsseldorf Benrath", a stop before the Düsseldorf main station. From there you can also take the streetcar, but on foot you also walk only about 10 minutes. Very close is also the Düsseldorf Old Town, which I also wanted to show you soon. But now back to the dream of a castle: It was built only 12 km from the former gates of the city Elector Karl Theodor of the Palatinate from 1756 to 1773. The curious thing is that he visited the castle but only once - today it can hardly save itself from visitors. When we arrived there it was not crowded (it has a huge garden), but very well visited. The park is a whole 61 hectares and many different species of birds live here, probably over 80! And over 300 species of bugs - that's why the park is very popular with nature lovers. Perhaps you have wondered why Benrath Castle is kept in a delicate pink? I think the color looks a bit like something out of a fairy tale. The peach blossom pink was said to be the favorite color of Elector Karl Theodor.
What we found great was that the park is free to enter, you don't have to show ID or anything, the gates are literally open to you.
It was built as a widow's residence for the Electress Elisabeth Auguste. At the time, it cost around 700,000 thalers. The interplay of pleasure palace, hunting park, ponds and canal system is considered a work of art of Düsseldorf and the citizens enjoy the attraction. What we found a shame was that the castle park is closed between 10pm and 6am due to vandalism. Once I also saw something sprayed on a wing of the castle.
The Corps de Logis as the main building in its pink colour
Here you can see me walking to the castle. In the following photos you may see a wedding couple at the edge, as they make photos in front of the castle with a photographer. These must have been great photos! Would you like to get married in a castle? I think to myself that it must be a very nice feeling.
The chateau is in the style of late French Rococo at the transition to Louis Seize. It can be seen a departure from inherited baroque and rococo forms, which were maintained especially in the times of the Holy Roman Empire. From the outside, however, a Baroque style can be seen above all, and the cavalier wings half enclose the circular castle pond. The Itter River feeds the entire water architecture here.
In front you can see four lions on either side "guarding" the castle. On the forecourt they are one of the most used photo motifs, like here haha. I think they look peaceful in a way. They give the castle a royal charm.
Instead of looking at a central entrance, the lion looks at the castle pond, it was specially created for the beautiful view of a reflected castle.
On the opposite side, in front of the castle, there are six magnificent sandstone figures on plinths.
The sculptures resemble nature gods from ancient mythology. According to the model: nature and art are integral parts of one and the same cosmic order and completely mutual.
The castle garden with its long pond and the orangery
The moment was perfect and so I had to capture it on camera: Two swans saw us walking along the 470m long mirror pond on the main axis and swam towards us. They probably thought we had brought some bread with us, but we hadn't brought any provisions for the day and so unfortunately they didn't get anything.
The parterre garden was cleverly integrated into the old axis system of the garden of the new palace. Over time, however, the garden fell into disrepair, it was probably very expensive to care for and manage. Eventually it was used as a tree nursery in the 20th century and before it was restored it looked more like a lawn of sorts, we're told.
The way in which the old floor plan could be branched off was clever: With the help of infrared aerial photographs, the original outline of the garden was now made visible again. Archaeological excavations followed and the garden was restored in a contemporary perspective. The old foundations of a well were also found here - however, it was unfortunately not filled with water when we visited, so I didn't take a photo because it looked a bit sad.
A photo through the window onto the parterre garden- it looks great, I wonder how many gardeners in total work in the palace gardens to keep it in good condition? The parterre garden is the oldest part of the castle park and was designed by the state master builder Johannes Lollio. He was also responsible for the planning of the old castle, the predecessor of Benrath Castle. The garden served the old castle as a pleasure garden.
We passed the orangery which, together with the gate building, forms the last relics of the original Benrath hunting lodge. It is found to the east of the pond and was the representative garden for citrus trees. At that time you needed a building in the immediate vicinity for this garden so that the plants could overwinter, so to speak a kind of winter garden. We were told that the saplings were then dug up with the entire rootstock. In the building, a nice lady showed us an exhibition by an artist: the group exhibition "Madeleine Effect". The occasion is the 70th anniversary of the Benrather Kulturenkreis. These are works by the artists Anna Virnich and Isabella Fürnkäs, as well as the artists Tom Król and Marcel Hiller, and the central theme is memories, the past and movements.
Various textiles and objects were used to explore the multifaceted nature of memory structures. What do you think of the exhibition? We were the only visitors, but the exhibition was also quite small and is not located very centrally in the castle park, which are perhaps two reasons for the few visitors.
Later we walked through the park forest - you quickly notice something of the 61 hectares - the paths are very long and some joggers came towards us. Actually, the park is strictly structured when you look at the maps, but you don't notice it as much when walking through the park, it seems more like a walk in the forest, which was really nice. With a few exceptions, the tree population of the former zoo has completely disappeared. Fortunately, the forest has been preserved through replanting.
The various entrance gates are all closed at night.
How did you like the trip to Benrather Castle? I would never have thought that the castle garden was so big, but the many signs gave us a good orientation. Later we visited the old town of Düsseldorf and ate a small ice cream before we went back by train.
Have a nice and peaceful Sunday!
Northrhine-westfalia has many sides! many different cities, landscapes, buildings...❤️
Great article, thanks! It deserves more views
yeah i am so happy to live here:) its very versatile! Thanks for commenting:)
Its really beautiful place, tks for sharing to us
thank you yes it really is:)
The delicate shade of pink is an unusual color but it suits the building well for some reason. The castle grounds looked really neat!
true.. yes the pastel coloured castle reminds me a bit of a castle i imagined as a little girl.;)
It’s amazing place. Thanks for telling a good memory . iI love that.
thank you for commenting:) it is:)
It really does look like something out of a fairy tale. And I am speechless at the ceiling! Looking forward to your post about Dusseldorf.
I thought so too, maybe I'll look for the castle again when it snows, I've seen pictures of it, it looks great! Thanks for looking :)
Pink color from construction to present? It is well kept
That's right, it has held up well or it has been renewed again and again over time :)
Maybe it's been repainted, it looks pretty perfect.
Such a beautiful place :) Thanks for sharing 😀
Yes, it´s great to walk there. Thank you for stopping by:)
Thank you for sharing this amazing post on HIVE!
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Daily Travel Digest #1498.
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Hiya, @ybanezkim26 here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made it into our Top 3 in Your post has been manually curated by the @pinmapple team. If you like what we're doing, please drop by to check out all the rest of today's great posts and consider supporting other authors like yourself and us so we can keep the project going!Correct me if I am wrong but it seems that castle in Europe often has lion in front of them. I find it interesting that it's the chosen guardian from those castle. Down here, in Indonesia there's similar creature but a hybrid mythical creature guarding the temples. The castle is still well-kept too!
Yes, that is often the case here. It's interesting that yours is a bit different, can this hybrid mythical creature take different forms or is it always the same?
Interessanter Post, das Schloss ist einfach toll, vor allem der Schlosspark mit den verschiedenen Weihern. Mein Lieblingsbild waren die Schwäne auf dem Spiegelweiher und im Hintergrund das Hauptgebäude mit den Skulpturen. Die Orangerie hat aber eine passende Farbe haha, oder?! Ich habe mal gelesen, dass es dort auch eine Pferderennbahn geben soll:)
Ich muss sage, dass es auch der Weiher war, den ich am schönsten fand. Zu den Skulpturen habe ich gar ni9cht viele Informationen gefunden, daher sind sie ja sehr imposant:) Haha ja da hast du Recht, das passt! Die gibt es dort auch, sieht aber nicht mehr nach einer üblichen Pferdrennbahn aus ( wenn wir richtig waren).
Very nice is the castle shown in the post, I noticed there was a bride and groom taking wedding pictures, and I visited a nice castle you probably saw it in my last post here in the community.
It was really nice, I also noticed the castle. When I saw the bridal couple, I thought it must be really nice to get married there. Thank you for stopping by!:)
I like the peach blossom pink color of the castle. It's reminds me of bubble gum lol.
The grounds look really big - lots to see and explore. The water features and statues are cool as well.
That's right, now that you mention it, it's really the color of bubble gum haha. The castle park was made really nice, the water systems should mainly help to reflect the castle :)
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so true yeah i think they got really beautiful photos :))