The Ducal Park in Gotha

Four centuries of garden culture

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In 1640, Ernst I chose Gotha to be the residential town for the newly founded Duchy Sachsen-Gotha. Soon a new castle was built, kitchen and pleasure gardens were created, and the foundation for a plant collection was laid. In 1747, works started to create the grand orangery garden with representative glass houses for the plant collection that had grown to almost 3,000 specimens. The English garden was designed from 1769 onwards in the style of the famous master of garden design Lancelot Brown. It is one of the earliest landscape gardens on the continent. Even though the park was expanded and redesigned in later years, these two gardens were practically left untouched. Today, they are among the absolute highlights of the park.