Wiligrad Castle: A park awakens from its slumber

The renovated landscape park at Wiligrad Castle is experiencing its rebirth between rhododendrons and lake views

Author: Annette Rübesamen
Published: July 2, 2024

In GDR times, Wiligrad Castle was so overgrown that people had no idea of its existence., © TMV/Friedrich — ©© TMV/Friedrich

Author: Annette Rübesamen
Published: July 2, 2024

A gravel path leads around Wiligrad Castle to a small forecourt with the most beautiful view: to the left, Lake Schwerin is blue, to the front you can see a gently sloping lawn with bald cypresses, plane trees and a trumpet tree. Behind it, the Schwerin cathedral tower peaks through the greenery. A dream of a castle park, also because Wiligrad Castle itself is such an eye-catcher: an impressive, two-winged neo-Renaissance building from the late 19th century, which is stylistically reminiscent of the Renaissance of the time of Duke Johann Albrecht I and stands out with its façade decorated with numerous terracotta elements.

Wiligrad Castle with the replica of the Brunswick Lion., © TMV/Tiemann — ©© TMV/Tiemann

Wiligrad Castle on Lake Schwerin

Take a stroll through a piece of contemporary history

And yet Wiligrad Castle and its wildly romantic landscape park are a real insider tip. This is not because master gardener Armin Sckell didn't take the trouble to plan the grounds - quite the opposite. He created visual axes and laid out five kilometers of paths to lead the stroller to specific views and small architectural elements. These pathways flowed harmoniously through the grounds, following groups of trees, hills and ponds. Water also played an important role in Sckell's plan: not only because the park grounds lead over a steep bank directly to the shore of Lake Schwerin. Water is also present in the form of ponds, springs and bubbling brooks. To this end, builder and client Johann Albrecht zu Mecklenburg, who had the Belvedere Palace Park in Weimar in mind, had collected lots of exotic trees – Greek firs, oriental pines and cedars found a new home on Lake Schwerin.

Over 1,000 rhododendrons were replanted during the park restoration

There are many kilometers of promenade through the Wiligrad castle park.

"We had to do some research first: What did the park actually look like in the past?" explains Dietmar Braune, Head of the Gardens Department at the State Palaces, Gardens and Art Collections of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

However, during the GDR era, the castle and park suddenly disappeared from the maps for political reasons. The grounds were first used as a party school and then as a training center for the People's Police. And the public was not welcome there. Anyone strolling through the 19-hectare palace park today is therefore also walking through a piece of contemporary history. In the post-war period, clear-cutting, uncontrolled growth and the bunkers and residential buildings of the police school destroyed the landscape park. We then began its restoration in 2011," explains Dietmar Braune, Head of the Parks and Gardens Department of the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern State Palace, Gardens and Art Collections. The terrain of the landscape park was remodeled and a lot of land was cleared, because after 40 years of uncontrolled growth, practically everything was overgrown," recalls Braune. „Basically, we have revived a park that no longer existed. That is something very nice indeed!

The pond has also become what it was always meant to be., © TMV/Tiemann — ©© TMV/Tiemann

In the castle park of Wiligrad

The bust of the duchess first had to be retrieved from the pond.

The restoration work around Castle Wiligrad lasted until 2014 and cost 2.8 million euros. Among other things, this was used to finance the restoration of the large pond, which is now once again an idyllic paradise where frogs croak, dragonflies tremble above the water and the bust of Duchess Elisabeth rests on a marble stele, which landed in the water during police training and had to be rescued from the muddy bottom. 1,000 new rhododendrons were also planted in the ground, as Wiligrad had always been famous for these magnificent flowering shrubs, which originally came from the Himalayas. Some of the old rhododendrons in Wiligrad Castle Park had grown to an impressive height of six meters. Of course, the new additions planted by Braune and his team have not yet reached that height. Some have already reached two meters. „They are thriving well here“, says the garden conservationist happily. He then points to a bright, green valley, in which a small stream idyllically splashes towards the lake. „This is where the police school shooting range used to be! Unbelievable, isn't it? We have uncovered everything again!

Today, guests can enjoy delicious homemade cakes in the "Gartencafé Wiligrad".

The „Elisabeth Spring“ was also reconstructed and the so-called „Emperor's Staircase“, which once led up from the landing stage on the bank, was uncovered. True to the original? „As far as possible, we worked from original plans and old photos. Where we couldn't find anything, we closed gaps," adds Braune. He is particularly pleased about the Braunschweig Löwen, a bronze sculpture sitting on a limestone plinth. „It is a replica. The original disappeared after 1945. It is thanks to a fortunate circumstance that the mold of an identical lion was still available in Ratzeburg, which we were then able to use again. Now the lamp is back where it belongs.