Rest and Picnic Sites in the Dessau-Wörlitz Garden Realm

Rest sites are found here, offering the opportunity for a breather in the Garden Realm; they do not disturb the landscape appearance with additional architecture. In suitable sites along already developed pathways, the rest sites essentially satisfy modern natural demands and also permit as close a call of nature as possible. In addition, drawing on a uniform structure of picnic sites, which at the same time is able to lend consideration to the individual features of the site, it is possible to contribute to the revival in the seat motif, one of the principal topics in the Garden Realm. The rest sites are intended to provide hikers and cyclists with the opportunity to have a break in this unique historical cultural landscape, which has grown from the floodplain landscape around the Elbe and the Mulde. Visitors here can experience the beauty and the aesthetic concepts as an overall work of art.

An ideas competition for landscape architects, art and design was held in 2002 in order to lend an individual design to the rest and picnic sites; it was won by the landscape architects Kai Spittler and Stefan Adlich. According to their plans, an individual rest and picnic site was created for each site, lending consideration to the historical circumstances in the Garden Realm. This was a joint programme by the Culture Foundation DessauWörlitz, the City of Dessau, the Hortec Office, the biosphere reserve administration and the Ministry of the Economy in the State of Saxony Anhalt.

Visitors can see where they are on sandstone steles in the rest sites and will also discover information on the special features of the landscape.

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