Molsdorf Castle Garden

Today's Molsdorf Castle Garden combines in a special way the charisma of a landscape garden with the traces of a representative baroque garden. It is thus an impressive example of the profound change in the perceptions of garden art.

Gustav Adolph von Gotter, who acquired the estate in 1734, created a baroque Gesamtkunstwerk [synthesis of the arts] with the design of the garden and the conversion of the former moated castle into a pleasure castle. To the south of the newly created garden facade of the castle, the garden underwent an architectural design. Historical plans document the classical sequence of low broderie parterres arranged centrally in front of the castle, followed by bosquet spaces. The garden was equipped with water features and numerous garden sculptures. Towards the end of the 18th century, when Molsdorf came into the possession of the Dukes of Saxe-Gotha, the transformation of the gardens by the court gardener Johann Rudolph Eyserbeck, who had been trained in Wörlitz, began. Elements of a landscape park, such as curved paths and an irregular pond, were inserted, and the canals were partially filled in. Some architectural elements and part of the sculptural equipment were included in the redesign. The baroque main axis with its orientation to the south was preserved and redesigned as the visual axis of the landscape garden. In front of the castle, a large lawn with flower beds was created as a pleasure ground, replacing the parterre beds.